First Look: a domestic idyll by Lucy Stark and Fabien Cappello at the Blunk Space

We’re not ashamed to admit that Blunk Space, at Point Reyes Station, California, has a special place in our hearts. We are ardent fans of sculptor JB Blunk, the Blunk House, his former home and studio in nearby Inverness, and Blunk’s daughter Mariah Nielson, who continues to bring her father’s legacy to life via a series of careful projects and imaginative interventions. Nielson’s skill as combined curator and editor means she has an intrinsic sensibility when it comes to keeping the flame of her father’s world alight. Legacy within a family can be a heavy burden; in Nielson’s hands it is light, enlightening and enlivening.

The latest show at Blunk Space is ‘Tabletop: works by Fabien Cappello and Lucy Stark’, which brings together a series of objects by the Guadalajara-based designer and Oakland-based artist in gentle conversation. The show consists of a series of paintings, ceramic sconces and a tablecloth by Stark, together with tin objects by Cappello. These works are inspired by time spent at that eternal wellspring of inspiration – the Blunk House – which JB built over time by hand according to need, desire and instinct, with materials as they presented themselves in the forest and shorelines around Inverness.

It is Blunk’s values and process and the experience of living (or staying) within the house that Cappello and Stark have responded to. Stark’s domestic vignettes tell stories of incidental ritual; meals, picnics, object groupings celebrating the smaller moments that make a day special. They evoke a way of living with a love for life that is unpretentious. Her colour world is rooted in the natural hues of the surrounding environs.

Cappello’s contributions extend the palette into painted tin pendant and table lights, alongside a series of his ongoing ‘Objetos de Hojalata’ – watering cans, vases and candle holders – also made from tin, in collaboration with Arturo and Maria Vega in Guadalajara. He plays with the boundaries of craft and manufacture, elevating base materials and industrial by-products into objects of everyday use with artistic expression. Cappello’s methodology is in the service of systems as much as objects, always with a charismatic playfulness. There is a clear thread between his own oeuvre and that of Blunk.

Together, Stark and Cappello’s works conjure the atmosphere of life at the Blunk House; simple yet powerful beauty in the art of living, where whimsy and integrity cohabit comfortably, effortlessly. The exhibition takes place at the Blunk Space in nearby Point Reyes Station until 19 October 2024. We settled down with Cappello to hear a little more about the experience of responding to Blunk – man, house, legend.

Fabien Cappello on responding to JB Blunk

Wallpaper*: What have you enjoyed responding to in JB Blunk's legacy with your own work?

Fabien Cappello: I love JB Blunk's apparent freedom of thought and the clear singularity that emanates from his body of work.

When you feel the beauty of how he decided things should be made for him, his loved ones, his clients and also the general public, the sensation of honesty and integrity is contagious. That's what I tried to keep in mind while drawing the collection I made for this show.

W*: Have you been in close dialogue with Lucy throughout the process?

FC: I think our respective work talks to the other, in ways that are very simple. I feel it's a dialogue between things that already exist and feel good together. Like when you set a table, when you furnish and decorate a room, not everything needs to fit, not everything needs to relate in a strict manner. Somehow things find their own dialogue in a genuine and natural way.

W*: What are some memorable details or impressions that struck you about the Blunk House?

FC: The scale and the feeling of comfort were the aspects of the house that struck me most. I love how it is conceived without the slightest pretentiousness or idea of self-awareness. It feels very personal and yet super welcoming. I must say that I dream of having my morning coffee at the kitchen table more often!

W*: How has Guadalajara influenced your working process and expression?

FC: Guadalajara is my favourite city. It's the only place on earth I feel really at home. I love how things work here, how production is a huge part of the city's identity and character.

It's also a complicated place to live as decision makers don’t always understand that the most valuable thing in our society is the quality of the link that joins us into a group of people that function, share, love, etc.

In the last ten years, the city has been going through a very global phenomenon of low quality urban and systemic movement, but I guess this adversity makes the society more creative and organised. I feel very grateful to be able to acknowledge this feeling of resilience from its inhabitants.

W*: Please complete the statement: 'For me, good design means….'

FC: For me, good design means generosity.

Blunkspace.com; Jbblunk.com

Tabletop is on from 7 September until 19 October 2024.

Blunk Space, 11101CA-1 #105, Point Reyes Station, CA94956