© Joe Kesrouani
War is a dirty business, and it’s no wonder that some would want to transmute the remnants of conflict into something with a more hopeful message. Using over 2,500 stray bullets recovered from hunting sites in Lebanon, New York City-based design studio L.E.FT created these striking brass birdhouses that temper the destructive with a touch of domesticity.
© Joe Kesrouani
L.E.FT’s founders, Makram el Kadi and Ziad Jamaleddine, both graduates of the American University of Beirut, describe the work’s Eamesian inspiration, beginning with a quote from writer Franz Kafka:
“A cage went in search of a bird.” — Kafka
Working retroactively from a bird, the birdhouse is a reflection on contextual design. The Eames’ House Bird, a staple of Eames’ furniture photographs in the 1950s that became synonymous with their household domesticity, is given here a Bird House, an ovoid hybrid between a cage and a house. The House is formed by hundreds of empty stray brass bullets collected from Lebanon’s various hunting geographies despite the hunting ban in effect since 1994. 2500 bullets were placed piece by piece around a welded brass shell by local steel welders and craftsmen. The limited edition object alludes to the paradox of birth and death and the uncertainty of life in times of war.
© Joe Kesrouani
Bristling with allusions of finding the positive within the grim, L.E.FT’s birdhouse is currently being shown at the House of Today exhibition in Beirut, Lebanon. More over at L.E.FT.
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