6 Futuristic Chair Models
These futuristic and shiny 6 chair models represent the work of Vivian Beer.
About the artist…
Growing up in a rural setting the development of hand skills and the making of objects was a part of Vivian Beer’s daily life. Throughout her carrier this understanding of design as a hands-on process has influenced the format of both process and product.
In 2000 she completed a BFA in sculpture from the Maine College of Art and went on to receive her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2004. While there the history of contemporary furniture design worked as a strong counterbalance to working in a number of craft schools and as a designer/fabricator of architectural ornamental ironwork.
Throughout her education she has tiptoed through contemporary design, craft and sculptural aesthetics, and found the subject of furniture to be a passion. Vivian is a current artist in residence at Penland School of Crafts where she has begun a new body of expressive outdoor objects.
Artist’s statement…
The anthropomorphic qualities of furniture are central to the development of the domestic landscape. The objects we use are part of how we form identity through recognition of difference, physical manifestation of social codes and the quality that it is both being used and made by people. These objects become both children and predecessors to our intimate experience through memory and image. The characters in this drama live on a spectrum between ergonomics and image, play and use, intimacy and performance.
The tacit relationship in a piece of materials to line and design to symbol (which is what the qualities and past trends in furniture become) drives architectural choices. Sampling images of the past with materials and current aesthetics one is gathering gentle recollections of style. Form follows imagination, and function is a script for where and how we interact with these creatures we live with.
Current
Design is strategic. Strategies, like stories, are sewn together with a bit of truth and a great deal of fiction. The piece Current is fashioned to make one feel as if a sheet of metal has been cut and compressed, and in this action a highly unlikely chair was born. It translates thin line into architecture capable of holding weight, and incites us to question the visually stated construction. 2004, Current, detail, (24”x16”x36”each) steel, paint.
Ribbon
In this chair a sheet of hot rolled steel was considered as a line and wrapped into itself to form structure. The loops within it are both structure and decoration, the same way a ribbon is tied into a knot to both decorate and hold what is precious. 2003, Ribbon, (26”x24”x36”) rolled steel sheet, stainless fittings and paint.
Scion
Thinking of a chair as a drawing the designer wanted to contrast the curves with rectangles. The weight of the line and nature of its curve, when translated into material, take on the tactile relationships of springiness and stiffness. When translated further into a relationship of use these qualities create the tactile sensation of sitting on a metal pillow. 2004, Scion, printed as a negative, (25”x23”x26.5”) fabricated sheet and bar stock steel.
Winded Orange
Covered in a Mazda car’s color this bench is a conglomeration of familiar images. A out f breath orange bench made from memories of a bikes banana seat and “mares tails” in the sky when weather is about to change. Winded Orange, 2006, (22”x24”x74”) steel, paint.
Spine
The gesture of rocking is a relationship – a give and take. The designer is trying to swiss-cheese the idea of form by perforating the solid and installing a bone structure; light, open, simple. This rocker is pined together. Spine, 2005, (27”x25”x34”) stainless steel.
Red Letter
A chair about balance and play had to be painted bright red. 2003, Red-Letter, in use, (29”x17”x30”) wood, paint, steel mechanism.
Leave a Reply
Subscribe a reader!
Advertise
Related Pages
