San Francisco – Peddy Mergui: Wheat is Wheat is Wheat

WHEAT IS WHEAT IS WHEAT: Peddy Mergui at the Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco CA. From April 12 to June 15, 2014.
Wheat is Wheat is Wheat is the creative vision of artist Peddy Mergui; the series explores the interstice of design and ethics and examines the designer’s role in a field designated to give shape to an idea, while used to effectively serve economic interests.

Mergui exaggerates the aesthetic and conceptual triggers that influence consumer trends and manipulate the relationship between an object and an ideal. Through the creation of supermarket environment vignettes, in which products are re-branded, Mergui presents basic grocery items with well-known luxury labels and aesthetics, effectively turning a viewer’s perception of quality on its head. Works in the series borrow their forms from the world of consumption and their concepts from the field of consumer ethics.  They expose the often arbitrary connection that a product has to its packaging and the conditions in which a designer operates.

Consumer validation is a recurring theme for Mergui; what does a customer actually purchase when he or she pays top dollar for a “BRAND” of wheat flour, or table salt? Does the consumer place a higher value on the packaging than the condition of the item inside and its ability to fulfill its advertised need?

Peddy Mergui: WHEAT IS WHEAT IS WHEAT
the Museum of Craft and Design
San Francisco CA.
From April 12 to June 15, 2014.
http://www.sfmcd.org/

Peddy Megui
Peddy’s personal experiences – from leaving Morocco as a small child and moving to Israel to explore the beauty of Japanese culture as a young adult – play an essential role in his design process and in his desire to challenge the status quo. As both the owner and founder of the design studio Talking Brands, and a leading professor of design at the Holon Institute of Technology, Peddy has over 20 years of practical industry and academic experience in the world of design and branding. Known for his ability to translate graphic language and visual communication into “rule-breaking” designs and concepts, Peddy has led hundreds of diverse advertising campaigns as well as a wide variety of projects involving brand building, packaging, and product perception.

Throughout his career, Peddy has been awarded a multitude of honors for his work including winning a national design competition in 1996 for which he received national recognition. It was this same year that Peddy established his own firm and began his journey towards becoming one of Israel’s leading designers. In addition to his work in Israel’s business sector, Peddy is both a lecturer, former Head of the Design Department, and a Senior Staff member at the Holon Institute of Technology (H.I.T.). Lecturing on branding, packaging, and visual communication, Peddy brings to the academic arena a perspective that integrates both his work in the studio and leading methodologies, directions, and design trends from around the world.

Exhibition sponsored by the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest in San Francisco.
Exhibitions and programs are generously supported by the Windgate Charitable Foundation and Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund.