PIET HEIN

My friend Trelawnie recently gutted a storefront building at Gerrard and Woodbine.  The original state of the place was grim to say the least and I was amazed to see what she had accomplished in few months and with a limited budget.  Once the finishing touches are complete perhaps she'll allow a full feature, but in the meantime, here's an interesting story about her dining room table.

The table came with books.  Better books than bugs.  The Danish designer, Piet Hein, was also an author, mathematician, and inventor (and married 4 women).  Apparently the table could not be sold without these books.

At first glance this table seems typically midcentury, but on closer examination you notice the curved metal edge and the wonderful expanse of white unblemished by the central seam so often seen in similar models.

The books contain poems that Hein called Grooks (Gruk in Danish).  Written during the Nazi occupation of Denmark in 1940, the short poems often offer a cryptic political or social message. They offer a glimpse into the mind of one of the 20th century's most interesting thinkers.

 Art is this: art is the solution of a problem which cannot be expressed explicitly until it is solved. -Piet Hein