Rock #23

Date
2022

Material
Polyurethane, Pigment, Steel

Dimensions
H61 x W31 x D17 cm (H24 x W12 x D7 in)

Available from Fredrikson Stallard studio

Sculptural objects evolved from the production of the “Species” furniture based works.

Hand carved polyurethane unique pieces, elements of sculpted mass supported by raw steel elements. References to naturalistic geological specimens, like treasures in a 21st Century cabinet of curiosities, each unique piece holding figurative abstraction.

The Rocks allow Fredrikson Stallard to be more free in their expression of form and usage of raw pigments that would be unrealistic within the realms of design. Its an organic evolution from the studio to remove themselves from the usual constraints of furniture and its related design disciplines. In this way Fredrikson Stallard reflects upon fundamental questions facing design today: authenticity, meaning, hierarchy, process, material and context. By transforming the process and perception of design, Fredrikson Stallard’s work alters the viewer’s physical encounter with these works, and invites participation in a new and deeper understanding and appreciation of what design could be. Fredrikson Stallard  plays with the idea of design, art and decoration, the pieces of polyurethane, torn, ripped and dissected, document and comment on the physical interaction between the work and human contact versus the machine made.

Fredrikson Stallard are constantly replaying this dialectic between the rational and the irrational, in a way that is highly unusual among designers. And this has never been truer for them than it is in their Polyurethane works, where external considerations usually at play in furniture are absent. By their own account, this lack of constraints has a terrifying dimension to it. There is nowhere to hide: total creative freedom has dictated that they confront the particular nature of their creativity.