To Be Continued by Julien Carretero

The To Be Continued Bench takes its design cue from a previous project by Julien Carretero entitled Chapter One.

Chapter One sought to create a unique product using serial production: “Instead of leaving randomness managing the differences, it uses the repetitive actions existing within the production process as a tool for differentiation.” Each Chapter One piece produced relies on the piece that came before it, forming a constructional echo chain wherein every piece exists “because of the others and could not have been designed without the others.”

How does this work exactly? Carretero explains, “Each layer is casted on top of the one casted before following the exact outline of it. Because of the imperfection of the cast, the object slowly mutates.” Using the same philosophy, Julien Carretero designed the To Be Continued Bench, whose name is more indicative of the construction behind it than the previous Chapter One. Made of layers of polyurethane composite, To Be Continued looks like a bench slowly folding in on itself. What begins as standard seating (right angles intact) ends as otherworldly seating—something bright and hallucinatory, a bench trapped in between the two realms of Tim Burton’s Coraline. Like Chapter One, To Be Continued aims for singularity within the manufacturing process: “Instead of leaving randomness manage the differences, it uses the repetitive actions existing within the production process as a tool for differentiation.”

The stripes are reminiscent of lollipops, the great big round ones that look as if they’ll topple over on their sticks. The transfiguration from one side to another is like a vortical experiment performed by Pink Floyd. The To be Continued Bench is the funhouse mirror of furniture, aptly designed by someone who hails from The Netherlands, home of all things great and goofy, wondrous and witty, experimental and exceptional.