What is the point of elevating ordinary objects into works of art? Is it pretension? Is it creative genius? Under a cold, white light, and placed high behind glass, if I say a paperclip represents the complex maze of modern life and its circuitous parallels are symbolic of the duality of isolation and overexposure in an accelerated workplace, is it true?

Ask Murray Moss, the New York design guru and tastemaker extraordinaire, who has journeyed west to open the first LA outpost of his internationally celebrated, distinctively singular, shop/gallery/museum, Moss. Packed with an enviable capacity, opening ceremonies took place last weekend amid a Swarovski forest and a torched and sculpted 1938 Steinway baby grand.

The furniture and objects offered at the shop deliberately blur the distinctions between production and craft, between industry and art, and more recently, between industrial and decorative arts…The intention is to force a view of each piece based on the context of its presentation, rather than its function or material. [Moss Online]

My hunch is that snooty and magnificent design is really just prettily veiled, neo-Freudian, daytime-running, dream analysis made tangible. And with context as king and presentation with purpose, anything with a story can be admired and desired. I'm sure the floor to ceiling crystal chandeliers would agree with me. So would the sofa made out of stuffed animals.

Moss
8444 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles 90069
(323) 866-5260

Photos by Lisa Brenner for LAist