SALONE DEL MOBILE – FREDRIKSON STALLARD UNVAIL TWO NEW COLLECTIONS FOR DRIADE

SERENO

Fredrikson Stallard’s work often exudes an energy like that of abstract expressionism, a forcing by the artists hand or a chaos within the materials and forms themselves, albeit an organized chaos. In Sereno they have used similar themes, methods and language to instead create a moment of calm and solitude. The forms themselves are created from shards of glass violently created by the artists, but they become unified in utter stillness by the inclusion of a simple flat sheet and the transformation of the group into polished stainless steel. This brings a reflection of the three unified elements in the surface, creating another of Fredrikson Stallard’s recurring themes, Rorschach like symmetrical forms. This even further delivers their nature from turmoil to serenity – they resolve themselves through the reorganization of symmetry.

BASALT

Much of Fredrikson Stallard’s work is about fragmentation and finding resolution through destruction. There are many similarities between studying the beauty of the resulting forms when destroying an object, and the veneration of objects, or pieces of objects, of great antiquity that have been fragmented by time. It has therefore always seemed logical for Fredrikson Stallard, when creating furniture from objects whose identity lies in fragmentation, to complete a piece by reflecting the way museums hold up these fragments of great history – the museum stand. Museum stands are bespoke objects designed to elevate a mere fragment to a level of cultural significance, to bring it under our greater scrutiny. Each element, object and stand have a disparate visual language, yet they rely on each other to become meaningful. In creating furniture, it is an essential prerequisite for Fredrikson Stallard that necessary elements, such as the legs of a dining table are never simply something to be stuck on for the sake of functionality, but must exist as a completely integral part to the identity of the whole piece, setting equally high expectations for every element of the work.

Categorised in:

This post was written by Emily