Konj-e-Hess
On August 30th 2019, in Nopa House, HAMOUN debuted a new set of furniture and accessories called “Konj-e-Hess”.
Konj-e-Hess, seeks that feeling we are already familiar with but can’t quite put to words. A feeling that has framed a part of our memories and banding with streaks of nostalgia, creates a desire or a sense of sorrow that captivates us with some fond life moments. It is as if the Iranian today look for solace in the past and try to recreate an adaptation of it in the present.
Konj-e-Hess is a place to detach; Not an isolation so to speak, but rather a deliberate retreat to return to oneself, get to know her, live with her, and eventually forge a mark out of this loneliness; a serenade maybe, the peace one feels after a midday nap. This collection is an exploration through which we try to answer a question: “Unrelated to the surrounding space, can we create objects that intrinsically radiate a place of their own, and create a “Konj-e-Hess”.
Konj-e-Hess doesn’t shrink to the mere mental notion behind the artwork. It morphs and evolves as it is chiseled into reality. So, impromptu changes have to be made along the way. Although it can erect a meticulously real version of what it imagines, Konj-e-Hess consciously segues along the way. It is important to realize these detours are not a mere coincidence. In a way, the process through which Konj-e-Hess blossoms out of a mental vision and melds into a final form is not random. This means Konj-e-Hess objects are not the product of only one individual, but the offspring of impressions, collective wisdom, and artistic touch of both their designers and craftsmen.
Konj-e-Hess is the middle ground in the standoff between form and meaning; yet it doesn’t abandon either one. Konj-e-Hess realizes the underlying story in each Object as its meaningful soul, and similarly interprets the face as formal expression. Without pitting one against the other, Konj-e-Hess beholds soul and form as one and attempts to create an essence-of-an-artwork.
Konj-e-Hess is after a new measuring unit for aesthetics in design. A carat that would be impartial to the progressive Western principles; nor would it lean towards the Orient’s thread-bare contemporary art. It doesn’t aspire a Holly Grail in the East nor it scours the West for an answer. It simply looks within.
Without soliciting any guide or leader, Konj-e-Hess seeks itself. Almost like it knows a treasure inside. Yet in a sense it is both Western and Eastern; not geographically so to speak, but in terms of what these names represent. Quite similar to how Iran and its culture sit in the middle on the world map, Konj-e-Hess tells a centrist narrative too. Somewhere on a sharp blade it cuts off “tenacious design assumptions”; preconceived notions of the sort that “Media” inundates our minds with.
