Wheat Is Wheat Is Wheat: Peddy Mergui
April 12–June 15, 2014
Exhibition sponsored by the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest in San Francisco and the Israel Center of the Jewish Community Federation.
The Museum of Craft and Design’s exhibitions and programs are generously supported by the Windgate Charitable Foundation and Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund.
This exhibition explores design and ethics. What is the designer’s role in a field designated to give shape to an idea, and recruited to serve economic interests without necessarily leaving room for moral consideration?
The phenomenon of “prestige” and “luxury” as a consumer validation is a reoccurring theme with the artist. What does the consumer actually purchase when he or she pays top dollar for a “BRAND” of wheat/flour, or table salt?
Works on display borrow shapes and images from the world of consumption and concepts from the field of consumer ethics. They explore the sometimes-arbitrary connection that products have to packaging, and the conditions in which the designer needs to operate.
Wheat is Wheat is Wheat is a humorous yet provocative commentary on global consumer culture that may just have us questioning our next purchase.
ARTIST
Wheat is Wheat is Wheat is the creative vision of artist, designer, Peddy Mergui. Peddy’s personal experiences — from leaving Morocco as a small child and moving to Israel, to exploring the beauty of Japanese culture as a young adult – play an essential role in his design process desire to challenge the status quo. As both the owner of a brand firm, and a senior 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 significant and 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 brand expert for establishing successful brands . 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.
