To hear Dakota Jackson tell it there is that moment between indecision and acceptance, the very imprecise notion that one can never entirely wrap their mind around, but which ultimately is the corner stone where disbelief finally becomes belief and art. Catching up with the eminent, surreptitious and cerebral Dakota at our favorite tea house- Lady Mendl’s this past week we got down to what this worker of miracles and illusions brings to the mind and soul.
You may not know this but Dakota Jackson has been performing wonders of magic for most of your lifetime, prodding you with his stealth designs that you unwittingly use everyday , enjoy, luxuriate in. This of course is no accident, but like most performers of magic he has made illusion very central to your life and what appears to be innocent and bordering on disbelief now the very acceptable and preferred. Whether you are sitting in one of his chairs, playing one of his pianos, holding one of his glasses or perfume bottles you are inevitably transfixed.
Having started as a magician and who at the age of 21 was traveling and living in London and living off his craft as well as mixing it with the close circuit world of influence as fate would have it came to the realization that his world was one of movement, an infinite attention to detail and the breaking down of systems, ideas, thoughts, feelings to the very core. By arriving at their very core, how they functioned and why they functioned he could suddenly impose a new law of how things could be made to re-function according to one’s anticipated or rather desired experience of the world…
It is a late Thursday afternoon and the tall brooding gentleman dressed in chic effortless black and fox silver hair is gazing intently at the world before he catches my eye and greets me. We shake hands cordially not before sizing me up and joining me up the stairs to the doyen of tea houses- Lady Mendl’s, a reckoning of old world charm, cedar scents and gentleman who wear white gloves when serving you hand made tea and your afternoon crumpet, cucumber sandwich and romance to a bygone era. We continue savoring the aromas when suddenly we are escorted by the maitre d to our accorded seats.
SCV: As a designer, what’s ultimately at stake?
DJ: It’s the idea will you be moved to that place between disbelief, incomprehension and suspense. Where the idea of what you are experiencing is subtle, what you envisaged but not entirely comprehensible in so far it is a completely unique response. A desired experience that only you can ultimately own. It’s turning an awkward moment into a desired moment…
