Lathe is a series of furniture that appear to have been stretched or extruded by designer Sebastian Brajkovic.
'They are called ‘Lathe’ because of the apparent rotating effect of the design. In fact the word Lathe comes from the Latin word used to convey the idea of milk being stirred.
My very first thought with making this design was actually a practical one. I wanted to create more space on a singular chair by “extruding” the seat’s surface area. This extruding idea came from a Photoshop function where you can pick a row of pixels and extend them as long as you want. This modern computer method aided me to devise new ways of sketching as a contradictory partner in my design process. In this paradoxical sense, using antique forms was the next logical step.’
-Sebastian Brajkovic.
In Lathe I, Brajkovic twists the familiar seventeenth-century dining chair and conjures up a playful alter reality, where objects themselves can be physically stretched and pulled as if in digital programme. The Lathe I has been pierced by a central axis running through the profile of the chair back, and as though being turned on a giant lathe, the seat and back extend around offering up a new, more spacious seating arrangement. With the seat extruded, the arms of the chair look like they might meet in reverse, the whole piece existing in the negative space of a traditional chair.
Check out the rest of the designer fabulous works that were exhibit at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery during February this year.
Lathe V, 2007. (Edition 8)
H 94 L 94 W 54 cm.
Bronze, hand embroidered.
Lathe II, 2008. (Edition of 8)
H 100 L 102 W 62 cm.
Bronze, embroidered upholstery.
Lathe III, 2006. (Edition 8)
H 94 L 74 W 67 cm.
Bronze, hand embroidered.
Lathe VII, 2009.
H 95 L 180 W 65 cm.
Silver Patinated Bronze, Embroidered Trevira Fabric.
Lathe VIII, 2008. (Edition of 8)
H 105 L 140 W 85 cm.
Bronze with nitric-acid burned patina and needle stitched embroidered fabric.
Lathe VIII reworks the traditional concept of a loveseat. Two antique chairs have been corrupted, fused together with the vision of modern technology, remade in traditional techniques, and now presenting an entirely new perspective on the conventional loveseat.
There is dynamism in this work, the chairs apparently turn around, pirouette, then spin off and trick the eye by giving the impression of a shift of movement or change of direction.
Like a sequence from The Matrix where the camera rotates around a scene that is frozen-in-time, when taking in the form a certain stillness pervades as you mentally navigate the distorted, alter-reality shape.
In 2008 the Lathe VIII won critics pick of the Design Art London Fair, and was acquired by the Victoria & Albert Museum for their permanent collection with sponsorship from Moet Hennesy. It will also feature in the Telling Tales exhibition curated by Gareth Williams opening in June 2009, which will focus on work by designers who explore the narrative potential of objects, connecting the past with the present.
Lathe Table, 2008. (Edition of 8)
H 30 L 119 W 119 cm.
Aluminium.
Made of aluminium, the Lathe Table is quite literally created by being turned on a real lathe. In this incarnation however, the chisel carves aluminum directly instead of the traditional wood.
The evocative sense of movement is conveyed in the spinning lines of the quasi vortex, offering the past impression of a moment of great movement and now stillness. Inspired originally by a child’s spinning top, whizzing around at high speed, it has the same illusion that once at its optimal speed it is no longer moving but standing up straight.
The highly polished surface is a product of the lathe turning technique which polishes as it carves the metal. He explains that whereas the Lathe Chairs are more like painting, in that modifications can be made during the production process, the Lathe Table is a one step process which is an honest and direct application of the Lathe concept.
About the designer:
Born in 1975, his mother is Dutch-Indonesian and his father Croatian-Italian. He graduated from the esteemed Eindhoeven Design Academy in 2006, where he could work within the fields of art and design simultaneously without categorization. He studied under Gijs Bakker, Hella Jongerius and Jurgen Bey, carrying out an invaluable apprenticeship at the Juergen Bey Studio. He continues to study philosophy at the University of Utrecht and lives and works in Amsterdam.
Brajkovic uses form and composition like an artist; the spinning composition he uses is comparable to the similarly computer-distortion inspired Vortex Paintings by contemporary artist David Salle, but the form is more likable to seventeenth-century furniture makers, bronze foundry artisans and traditional embroiderers. Thus is the parody of Brajkovic’s work, it tells a story of contemporary society’s need to reference the past, but present it in an idiosyncratically contemporary way. He is drawn to the aesthetics of the past as a way of retaining our memories, but reveres the new, with its unknown and curious future.
- Dezeen.
a+. sebastian brajkovic via dezeen
