JUMBO: Selected Works by Gae Aulenti (2022)

Same Old and Found Objects present Jumbo (2022) honoring Gae Aulenti's career through a curation of her greatest designs. This show is both a celebration of Aulenti's work as well as an interpretation of her design philosophy. She firmly believed that "a design should not be imposed on a space, rather a space and its inhabitants should inform the design," and her work, therefore, was untethered to a specific aesthetic. In line with her approach, Found Object's DTLA showroom was a key consideration when designing this presentation of Same Old's Aulenti collection.

The trapezoidal platform was handcrafted and inspired by the unique geometry of the showroom, namely its unconventional hexagonal pillars. It also references Aulenti's structures in MoMa's 1972 exhibit, "Italy: The New Domestic Landscape," a commission of a series of experimental environments. By presenting this collection in a similarly untraditional manner, Jumbo suggests that the viewer consider these industrial designs as art rather than utility.

Gae Aulenti (1927-2012) was a prominent postwar Italian designer and one of the few female members of this movement. One of her earliest designs was a collaboration with Knoll in 1972. It was an architectural marble coffee table with cluster legs, known as the Jumbo Table, that was originally conceived in 1965. While still in production today, it has undergone minor updates to the design. The current models have a flush surface where the legs meet the table top, while the first edition has legs that lock into the surface with a protruding node.

This show will offer a rare look at her first edition Jumbo Table, which was never mass produced. Due to the nature of marble, every table has the ability to be identified through a unique veining. This table shares a nearly identical fingerprint to the very first Jumbo Table ever produced, as seen in the Knoll Archive, and is believed to be cut from the original slab of marble. The show will also feature many pieces from her namesake collection with Knoll from 1976, as well as other highlights from throughout her career.