Living with Art Exhibition
Location: Little Milton (Oxfordshire)
Scope: Furniture design
Christina Seilern designed three new objects to showcase as part of the ‘Living with Art’ exhibition which took place at Albion Barn in Oxfordshire in 2017.
The exhibition, which opened in conjunction with Frieze Art London, featured a selection of over 100 pieces designed by artists, designers and architects showcasing the interface between art and design.
Celebrating the creativity of artistic forays across design boundaries, the three pieces were an extension of what SSA is exploring in large scale architectural work: namely the sense of lightness, floating architecture and reflection.
Floating Candles is a 2.6m length slab in mirrored polished steel produced by the Japanese company Kikukawa. The thirty candles randomly and whimsically placed atop of the 3mm plate, are reflected and appear to be floating in the centre.
In Boksto 6, the multifunctional centre in Vilnius (Lithuania), the architecture plays with the notion of the reflection of historical structures, rather than mimicry of the historical fabric, as with the mirrored steel candle centrepiece, which plays with the reflection of candles.
The melting of the wax adds a playful element to the dining experience. The wax melting creates a poetic result that constantly transforms and evolves the piece into new unexpected and unpredictable shapes. The large centrepiece occupies the length of the dining table designed by Max Lamb and appears through its reflection as a void at the centre.
The other pieces are Concrete/Rubber Bench and a Glow Lamp.
The mixture of concrete and rubber was an experimental prototype that Christina developed into a decorative furniture piece. The concrete, a mix of finely ground marble sand, which is very white and reflective, and grey cement, which when cured in a plexiglass formwork gives the appearance of a highly polished marble block. The base of the bench was cast in backlit rubber, giving the illusion of insubstantiality. The concrete mass floats above the floor, looking light and weightless.
