[ FredriksonStallard ] at David Gill Galleries

FredriksonStallard present their new furniture collection at David Gill Galleries in London tomorrow.

The collection, which includes the Pyrenees chaises (top), the putty-like Table#6 (above) and Unit#3 (below), will be exhibited at David Gill Galleries, 3 Loughborough Street, London SW11 from 11 May to 2 June 2007.

The collection includes new versions of their Bergère chairs (below), which were first shown at Design Miami last year.

PR blurb follows:

–

FIRST MAJOR FURNITURE COLLECTION FROM FREDRIKSONSTALLARD

During the last year FredriksonStallard has collaborated with David Gill Galleries to develop their fist major collection of furniture and thus in May FredriksonStallard will unveil their most comprehensive and arresting collection to date.

“As we penetrate ever deeper into the digital age, we are leaving behind modernism’s driving imperative - mass production by industrial means. The new age is a more fluid, more transient one, and it is in need of typologies that reflect these new parameters. Form and Function have long ceased to be valid guidelines for designers working in a world overflowing with objects that do everything for us and yet are completely devoid of meaning; it is against this backdrop that our work should be viewed” FredriksonStallard 2007

Combinations of colours, previously unseen in the work of FredriksonStallard and unexpected choices of materials fuse pieces such as the volcanic table, a vast cast in rubber and the Bergere chairs made from urethane with liquid-like wraps of polished stainless steel. Traditional upholstery is explored with a sofa carved and morphed from a solid block of clasped urethane foam.

The questioning and cross pollination of materials and processes that has been seen in much of the early work has been allowed to flourish with FredriksonStallard’s studio acting as the laboratory. Working closely with a variety of industries, such as chemistry, metal and textiles and utilising handmade almost craft based techniques combined with high tech computer driven technologies, the duo has been able to cross breed and implement their findings into totally new ways of applying materials to furniture.

Theirs is a vocabulary that speaks to us simultaneously from many levels and seamlessly blends archaic traditions with the avant-garde. These pieces are fairy tales for grown ups: objects balancing on the ridge between the traditions of the past and the dreams of the future and with a healthy disregard for the conventions of both. The juxtaposition and fusion of elements from both sides give us glimpses of another, barely tangible reality - a reality where all things are deeper, darker and altogether more fantastic.

“…They are not shackled to a commercial system of supplying industry or the market with novelties, but instead they are developing a visual language of significant and beautiful design objects capable of bearing meaning.” Gareth Williams – V&A