\u201cWomen put a deep emotional dedication into their work,\u201d says Appleton, who is curating the show. \u201cI think men traditionally have a clearer line \u2014 historically, they go to work, and then they come home and they\u2019re with their family. With women, there\u2019s a lot of blur. It\u2019s a constant process.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Appleton herself started her Manhattan gallery,\u00a0Kinder Modern<\/a>, which sells new and vintage modernist furniture for children, at home six years ago. She founded FDC shortly after the 2016 presidential election. \u201cTriggered and upset about the status of women and their visual representation in the media,\u201d she explains, \u201cI felt the need to tap into a community.\u201d She emailed a few female colleagues to gather for a conversation about \u201cwhat we need as women in design.\u201d From that initial roundtable, the FDC was born.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Although \u201cDeeper Than Text\u201d represents the first ingathering of the FDC\u2019s far-flung membership, the decision was made to include work from outside the organization. \u201cThe goal,\u201d explains Appleton, \u201cwas to have a mix of members and nonmembers featured to extend our reach for designers and exposure for their work, displaying their work at one time and place.\u201d The installation makes use of the raised space in the middle of the 45,000-square-foot\u00a01stdibs Gallery, which opened last February<\/a>on the seventh floor of the historic Hudson Terminal warehouse building as a high-end bazaar of 1stdibs dealers plying their intriguingly varied wares.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u201cAs you come up the stairs\u201d to the FDC exhibition, says Appleton, \u201cyou\u2019re welcomed by innovative lighting, ceramics, textiles, photography, works on paper and, of course, furniture from all over the world.\u201d The impactful display, she adds, \u201cshows how vast and dynamic this community of women designers really is.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Some pieces are set directly on the floor, others placed on pedestals, hung on adjacent walls or arrayed in eye-catching vignettes. New York\u2013based artist\/photographer Alexandra Rowley\u2019s evocative works on paper, for instance, play off Dutch designer Kiki van Eijk\u2019s Space Poetry series of tall geometric platforms that explore the relationship between space and architecture.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Van Eijk is not alone in evoking poetry in her work. Karen Chekerdjian\u2019s Iqar (Icarus) \u2014 a low, origami-like table made of a single sheet of folded aluminum polished to a mirror-like sheen, brought to the show from Beirut \u2014 is meant, she says, to \u201cremind us of the rewards, rather than the risks, of flying close to the sun.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Elyse Graham, of Los Angeles, is premiering more of her extraordinary colorful and graphic resin vessels. Cape Town\u2019s Southern Guild gallery has sent pieces by two artists: Justine Mahoney\u2019s fantastical toy-like figures, each with a name and a story, fashioned of such materials as bronze, marine plywood and glass; and large-scale ceramic totems by Zizipho Poswa that draw on her Xhosa heritage.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Also on display: ceramic lamps with an ember-like glaze by lauded multidisciplinary artist\u00a0Cathrine Raben Davidsen<\/a>, of Copenhagen; luxurious abstract expressionist carpets from Brooklyn\u2019s\u00a0Malene Barnett<\/a>; and the playfully asymmetrical Kenny table from the Tribeca-based\u00a0Egg Collective<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Of course, everything is for sale through 1stdibs. The FDC has its own\u00a0brand-new shop on the 1stdibs website<\/a>, and some exhibitors\u00a0 have individual storefronts on the platform as well.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Stephanie Beamer, one of three female partners in Egg Collective, has been a member of FDC\u2019s advisory board from the beginning. \u201cEven in our current day, women designers are still underrepresented in numbers,\u201d she says. \u201cThe network of female designers we\u2019ve been able to build in the last two years, and the camaraderie, are an important and welcome change. And it\u2019s wonderful to have 1stdibs\u2019 support in shining a light on female-designed work.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The show\u2019s title refers to Appleton\u2019s frequent frustration with media coverage of women designers. \u201cWhen I read magazines, I often see incredible furniture and objects made by women, but the articles focus more on the fact that they\u2019re women and have kids than on the work itself,\u201d she says, adding that the FDC show is \u201cdigging into what\u2019s behind the work, the consistent effort that goes into design and production, the process and the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n You can decide for yourself whether the pieces on display are uniquely, inherently female or just uncommonly original, beautiful and beguiling examples of contemporary design.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n![\"Brass](\"https:\/\/www.1stdibs.com\/introspective-magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/fdc-x-1st-dibs-0130.jpg\")
\r\n![\"Alexandra](\"https:\/\/www.1stdibs.com\/introspective-magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/fdc-x-1st-dibs-0197-480x624.jpg\")
\r\n![\"Lora](\"https:\/\/www.1stdibs.com\/introspective-magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/fdc-x-1st-dibs-0690-480x691.jpg\")
\r\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.1stdibs.com\/introspective-magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/fdc-x-1st-dibs-00562-1.jpg\")
\r\n![\"Iqar](\"https:\/\/www.1stdibs.com\/introspective-magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/fdc-x-1st-dibs-0783-1-1-480x622.jpg\")
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