VINCENT DECAT, EUNDAHM HWANG & JOOHYUN KANG
FINDING FREEDOM IN FORM
French furniture designer Vincent Decat aims to create pieces of furniture that lack an explicit function, so that the user
can appropriate them at will.
He designs to allow the end user to interact with these unfixed pieces, so that there is always space for their personal needs.
Dusk
Decat leaves strong traces of the making process in each of his design pieces, believing that the making of a thing reflects its story in a unique way. Textures and exposed materials tell the story of how his furniture
was formed.
“I see textures as the scars of the conception which are, I believe, valuable in handmade works. I’m particularly intrigued by raw materials,” explains Decat. “I think they release a strong natural energy from the imperfection of their colours, textures, shapes. I love the experience of exploring the properties of an object which I have no prior knowledge of.”
Decat works in an intuitive way, almost sculpting the materials and allowing the pieces to emerge in an almost self-determined way, without having too fixed an idea of where they will go as he begins. The process of creation becomes a collaboration between the designer and the material.
Crater
“I studied industrial design for three years in Brussels. I learned how to build communicative models, how to be pragmatic and give an object a real reason to exist
in this world,” explains Decat. “I felt later that I had to know myself better by working
on my fascinations rather than trying to solve technical issues. My willingness to dive
into raw materials brought me to the Design Academy of Eindhoven
where this philosophy of experimental research is welcome.”
The work that Decat has included in the Cluster online exhibition includes a piece called Crater, which is rather different from his previous work. This piece was created during
the lockdown of summer 2020, when Decat found himself with time to play
with new materials.
“Crater is a stool made out of concrete and irons,” he says. “When I use a material
that I have never worked with before, I am far more spontaneous
because its properties are unknown for me.”
Comet 4
Decat began by making a mould out of recycled cardboard pipes
that he had collected in a factory. He assembled them together
into a structure that could carry the weight of a human.
He introduced concrete to the piece and intentionally damaged parts
of the structure to tell a story about our environment.
Comet 3
“I damaged the mould to create a contrast between the material
that is usually found in geometrical forms in our urban environment
and the imperfection of the shape. I made a series of holes on top
of the cardboard to cast the concrete in it. We can actually see those bright spots which inspired me the name Crater.”
YOU CAN BUY VINCENT DECAT’S PIECES THROUGH OUR ONLINE SHOP
Designers Eundahm Hwang and Joohyun Kang work in very different way to Decat. Their pieces
are premeditated, modelled and thoroughly considered.
Hwang and Kang met studying woodwork and furniture design at the Hongik University in Seoul, South Korea.
Their work combines craft techniques
with high-tech modelling
and 3D rendering.
Their methods help them create furniture and homeware items that are fit for purpose and are also artistic
and unique. They challenge themselves as creators
by using unusual materials and testing new techniques.
The two designers were drawn to working with each other because of a shared love of nature, especially
with using plants in their design pieces. They have complementary strengths, where Hwang plays
with plasticity and material potential,
and Kang is interested in playing with colours.
Co-existence Gold
The work that Hwang and Kang have contributed
to the Cluster Crafts online exhibition is titled
Co-existence. It is based on the idea of a flowerpot
that has a freedom and formlessness within its fixed form.
The pieces are made for a specific type of air plant called and Ionantha that are able to live sustained on moisture in the air,
and therefore do not need their roots to be submerged in soil.
“Co-existence doesn’t express the entirety of our design style,
but it does show the one thing that we both love – nature,”
explains Hwang. “We wanted to see the plants at the same level
with the human beings and as if are living in the same place.
So the circle structure is intended to be like the sky – a small world
for the plants – and the rectangle plate represents the ground.”
The two designers hope that the pieces exude a feeling of freedom, as the plants are seen to hand and thrive in the air as if by magic.
Thank you for reading,
Katie De Klee & Cluster Team.