Medusa - Night Tales Round table - / By Masanori Umeda, 1982-2020 - Limited edition by POST DESIGN Transparent

The heart of Memphis continues with the same strong beat as in its early days in 1981. Japanese designer Masanori Umeda, one of the founding members of the subversive Memphis collective, is back! He's celebrating the true Memphis spirit through the new Night Tales collection: fascinating pieces with a surprising style 40 years after the creation of the post-modernist Memphis group, founded by Ettore Sottsass in the 1980s, this new product family designed by Masanori Umeda is taking its rightful place in the Post Design collections. Night Tales is made up of the Utamoro series – pieces with unique designs - along with several projects based on designs found in the archives dating back to the 1980s. Born in Japan in 1941, Masanori Umeda went on to hone and flaunt is talents as an architect and designer in Italy. He started out in 1962 in the studio of Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni before becoming a consultant at Olivetti. He held that position from 1967 to 1969, and it was there that he met Ettore Sottsass, with whom he would go onto to collaborate with in the 1980s for the creation of the famous Memphis collective. It was in 1981 that Umeda created his most iconic piece for Memphis: the incredible "Tawaraya" Boxing Ring. A transgressive creation that combines styles, functions, colours and materials, fully investing in the dynamics of the Memphis movement. Umeda's collaboration with Memphis continued over two more years. In 1982, he designed the robot-shaped Ginza bookcase and in 1983, he created the Orinoco ceramic vase. The Medusa table was created using one of Umeda's archived designs, dating back to 1982. Medusa is a "domestic animal" with zig-zag legs, reminiscent of the arms of the Murmansk fruit bowl by Ettore Sottsass. The wild and animal inspiration for this table, which was part of Umeda's project signatures, which combine nature and design to create wonderful objects which inspire instant empathy and emotional attachment, This table has an iridescent, dichroic glass top which changes colour in different lighting and from different angles, whilst casting colourful shadows around the room. Like any four-legged animal, the bent metal legs are finished with transparent plexiglass spheres. This table is reminiscent of the Memphis style which revolutionised design in the 1980s, by shaking up the norms by deliberately stepping outside of the lines of "good taste". Soon, Memphis became THE subversive label of Italian design with its wacky, colourful world inspired by comics, Pop Art, cinema, Kitsch and Art Deco.