While Jasper was a student at Berlin’s Hochschule der Künst, he formed the project Kaufhaus des Ostens with Andreas Brandolini, one of his tutors, and Joachim Stanitzek, a fellow student who shared studio space with Brandolini. Kaufhaus des Ostens, which translates as Department Store of the East, made the initials ‘KdO’, which also stood for Kampf der Ohnmacht, ‘fight against impotence’. The project was funded by the financing that Professor Hans Roericht had requested from the Royal College of Art for Jasper’s proposal. It was inspired by Jasper’s Handlebar Table. Brandolini has said that it ‘arose from the boredom aroused by certain aspects of the New German Design which, soon after having banished the established design, tended to operate in a formal and agreed framework’, despite its funny or nasty proposals.
In June, Kaufhaus des Ostens put on an exhibition at the university. The exhibition moved to the Merve Publishing House at Crellestrasse 22 in Schöneberg, Berlin, where Jasper took these photographs. It opened there on 28 June. Then it travelled to Munich (Galerie Strand), Hamburg (Galerie Möbel Perdu) and back to Berlin (Werkbund Archive). Jasper showed the Flowerpot Table, Directional Light Source, Directional Light Source with Small Table (later known as the Laboratory Light), Graphic Communicator, Fruit Bowl, Office Shelving, Mobile Light Source and Daily Mirror, all itemised in the catalogue with their prices.
The exhibition catalogue was a zine-like sales catalogue. Jasper’s essay ‘The Poet Will Not Polish’ was published here for the first time.
Jasper at the Merve Publishing House, which was one of the venues for the Kaufhaus des Ostens exhibition.
The Kaufhaus des Ostens catalogue. (From a reproduction made in 2012.)
