[ Nacho Carbonell ] Bush of Iron

Eindhoven designer Nacho Carbonell built himself a giant iron nest for Design Miami/Basel this week.

Called Bush of Iron, the structure contains a seat for one person facing a desk-like recess inside the prickly wire shell.

This piece is the last in Carbonell’s Diversity series for Galleria Rossana Orlandi, shown in Milan earlier this year (see our earlier story).

Miniatures of the other pieces in the series were shown alongside it.

Design Miami/Basel continues until 19 June.

Here’s some more information from Carbonell:

Nacho Carbonell, Design Miami/Basel Designer of the Future, Unveils the Final Missing Piece, a Culmination of the New “Diversity” Series June 14, 2010 in Basel.

Single Large Raw Metal Piece by Carbonell is On View at DesignMiami/ Basel 2010.

Galleria Rossana Orlandi presents the central and concluding piece by Nacho Carbonell, the 2009 Design Miami/Basel Designer of the Future, for the Diversity collection of conceptual desks shown during the past Milan Furniture Fair. Carbonell, a native of Valencia now based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, rapidly established a reputation for creating distinct, innovative forms and highly experimental finishes following his graduation in 2007.

Works in his “Evolution” series, for example, recall natural forms, such as gourds, pods and cocoons, finished with coatings made from papier mache, ground corn, leaves and other elements frequently boiled down into a paste that is applied to steel and wire armatures. His recent “Skin” series featured simple table and chair forms sealed in elastic latex that contained an umbilical-like connection between the objects. Carbonell’s works often invite interaction – one can hide one’s head between the layers of latex in a “Skin” series work, or disappear totally into the bulbous appendage of an “Evolution” piece.

In the past Milan Design Week, Carbonell took twenty iterations of the same form – a slender-legged chair attached to a narrow, covered desk – and created distinct finishes for each with the result suggesting a demographically diverse neighborhood. One is coated in “hair filaments” that can be combed and groomed; another in shards of broken glass from used wine bottles; and, yet another in a granular concrete coating. Arrayed in the vast and opulent 625 square meter exhibition space at the Palazzo Ferre, the so called Diversity collection seemed almost processional.

Now, for DesignMiami/ Basel and following the success of Diversity, the designer opted to make a final grand Diversity piece resembling a natural creature that is made using raw iron crafted as in the beginning of the industrial era. The Bush of Iron, as it is titled, is the last and most laborious piece, designed with a reinforced all iron structure which houses thousands of wire spines seemingly extruding from the desk-like frame. Inspite of the creature-like inspiration, the designer opted to keep the cold and serene attributes of the metal and provided it with a weight – close to a ton – and a volume large enough so that it creates an overwhelming atmosphere in it’s surroundings.

In the inside of the piece, the user will find a space where to rest, think, isolate himself… always protected from the exterior thanks to the metal extrusions reaching meters into the air. “The innards of the Bush of Iron provide one person with a private space, protected from any interruptions”, says Nacho Carbonell, “the outside is another story: like a porcupine, its spines are not there to make you cuddle comfortably around it”.

This central piece will be accompanied by small scale models of the 18 Diversity pieces in the collection. Nacho wants to give visitors an opportunity to see the whole collection together once again, even if in small scale.

Rossana Orlandi said, “After the Evolution Collection, presented last year at ArtBasel/ DesignMiami, The Diversity collection continues the collaboration between Galleria Rossana Orlandi and Nacho Carbonell. It is important to show here this piece which concludes and summarizes the whole Diversity project, showing our aim to follow and support Nacho Carbonell’s career”.

The show takes place at the booth of Galleria Rossana Orlandi at DesignMiami/ Basel 2010, Hall 5, Messe Basel, Messeplatz 4005 Basel, Switzerland.

from dezeen