Object Redux: Savon de Marseille, a pack of four.

I chose a package of four different soaps from Savon de Marseille. The flavors are cannelle orange, peche, rose and fruits rouges. They have an earthy colour pallet and simultaneously go towards pastel like colours. They are common squares of soap meant to have in your bathroom to wash your hands.

This pack of four was displayed in the health and beauty section of Monoprix on a wall along with other soaps from Savon de Marseille. They are created for a utilitarian purpose but the brand values its aesthetics as well. It is a product that literally can be used by anyone, not constrained by gender, age etc. The most important design features are the geometric shape and the logo that is carved into each soap. It is what makes the soap recognizable and adds value because of the brand image that has been built up from the start of their journey in the 19th century.

Step 3:

Description and analysis (seminar)

The object chosen is a four-pack of Savon de Marseille. In the 19th century soap was an iconic product for Marseille. The year of 1864 a candle manufactory changed direction and started making soap. They started producing soap on behalf of many different brands and 1953 it became in charge of Fer a Cheval its only representative since 2003. Until today they manufacture and select the ingredients for the Marseille soap and brings the knowledge on to each new generation. In the 19th century Marseille it was common to have an expression attached to one’s brand for good luck and “Fer a Cheval” (horseshoe) became theirs. The production, safonification, happens in their historic metal pot according to traditional method… “Following the recipe certified by Colbert’s Edict in 1688 and consolidated by Napoleon Bonaparte’s decree of 1812, we manufacture it in five steps: pasting, graining out, boiling, washing and liquidation. These five steps are the reason for the iconic soap’s renown.” (https://www.savon-de-marseille.com/en/)

To alter my chosen object I wanted to transform it and change its purpose. I wanted to shift the object from being having primarily a utilitarian purpose to a visual aesthetically pleasing (or not pleasing) purpose. To alter it I chose to use a kitchen grater and grate the four different soaps. I used the torn bits of soap and glued them to a surface to create an abstract piece of art. At first, I grated a part of all the different soaps so that it looked like grated cheese on a plate. I got inspiration to do this from “satisfying soap cutting” videos that circulate on Instagram and youtube. Bigger cut pieces of soap seemed harder to put together in a 2D painting, the format I wanted because of my research direction so I thought I could create smaller and more delicate pieces with a grater.

The new meaning and functionality of the object redux become the aesthetics and abstractness and the soaps loss their original function, which is to clean one’s hands. The grated different colours of the soaps have the ability to become a beautiful composition when put together onto a surface. Since the four soaps come together in a package the colours are quite different but still fits well together which becomes visible when mixed together onto the painting.

I wanted to manipulate the soaps into something abstract, colour focused, and “for-the-sake-of-the-sight” to match it with my research direction which will be to explore an abstract artist’s use of colour, such as Mondrian or Rothko for example. To make the soaps into abstract art enables the viewer to focus on how the artwork affect us. What is your opinion on it, what emotions does it evoke and why? How do composition, texture, form, and colour affect your reaction to it? The soaps by themselves in their original state has also been thoroughly thought out design wise, concerning colour and form, but the main purpose of the original object is still to wash one’s hands and not to interpret how the colour and forms of them make you feel

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The object redux version is my attempt to create something abstract yet beautiful, I think the different textures and colours of the grated soap onto the surface could make it looks messy but since the colours go well together it feels like a clean mess. The painting made of grated soap that has become abstract art is supposed to be hung on the wall or lie on a flat surface to be observed.