Out of the Woods: Adventures of Twelve Hardwood Chairs

Gran parte de la experiencia de la gente sobre los objetos se limita a verlos en un estado momentáneo de perfección, en la estantería de una tienda o en una revista. Una instantánea en la vida de un producto ha llegado a dominar todo el proceso de diseño, y su proceso de producción apenas queda reflejado. El efecto negativo de este fenómeno es que el gran coste medioambiental de cada objeto hecho queda oculto a nuestra vista.

De la colaboración entre the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) y the Royal College of Art Design Product en Londres, surge este interesante proyecto, Out of the Woods, con la madera como elemento protagonista. El planteamiento inicial es diseñar y producir una silla de madera, explorando el material desde todas sus facetas de creación, llevándolo hasta el límite.

En paralelo a este exhaustivo estudio y una vez diseñados los prototipos, nace un nuevo enfoque artístico, dejando de lado la materialidad y la ciencia. Se encargó a algunos de los mejores escritores de Reino Unido escribir piezas inspiradas en este proyecto. Cada uno ha creado un poema o un relato breve sobre una silla diferente. Este trabajo culmina con una nueva publicación, diseñada por los estudiantes de RCA Communications Fabienne Hess y Livia Lima, y bajo la supervisión de Harry Richardson.

Los autores son: Tiffany Murray, Jenny Valentine, Damian Barr, Luke Wright, Joe Dunthorne, Tiffany Atkinson, Gillian Clarke, Sarah Salway, Stella Duffy y Aminatta Forna.

A continuación mostramos algunos de estos poemas.
 

OUT OF THE WOODS. Tiffany Atkinson.

comes the hand
and its delicate fretwork;
how little a man needs
to carry his weight in the end.

Perhaps it's a dud summer
ans rain has run all afternoon
the white length of his forearm;
perhaps he is sickened or lost

or his house repossessed
or the world has burned down
to a barrow of ashes and bone
or the guests have rolled up

unexpected in breakable outfits
and there is nowwhere safe to sit.
Quickened with need he will crib
from the compound tense od wood

a single unfoldable rune for still
flight, one for each soul in its
hobble of flesh; and this is how
whole new cities flower overnight.
 

THE FLOATING CHAIR. Gillian Clarke.

Remembering wind in the white oaks
I plant my chair in a wilderness, settle in neat
as a lark's nest in a cleft crushed in the grass
under buzzard and crow, th wind-blown flocks
of curlew, clouds, ideas, words.

Remembering cherries shaking foam from their hair.
I launch my chair on a wave for the spray on my page,
the taste of salt, the snap of a sail,
words homing in paragraphs over the sea,
a silver leap from the depths.

Remembering s

ongs of chainsaw, chisel, plane,
I float my chair on a floor smooth as a lake,
its mind on reflections. I consider carpenters, makers,
hands silking the wood. A stipple of thought
surfaces like a trout, a tug on the line.
 

NEW CHAIR. Jenny Valentine.

My ghost can't touch it, but I can.
The day I bring the chair home, I know he is watching. I don't see him but I know he is there. He is always there.
He stays in the dark room with it when I go upstairs to sleep, and he wakes me, just before morning, for an explanation.
I have brought something new into the house. I have brought somehing he can't touch because he has never touched it, and has no memory of how it once felt.
It is the only thing here that he has never put his hands on. It is the first new thing I have bought since his death.
Alive when he was, young at the same time, and now both changed. The ash tree to his chair, the man to an echo, a presence, a just-leaving of the room.

 

Phyllida Bench. Poema de Luke Wright. Out of the Woods: Adventures of Twelve Hardwood Chairs. Fotografía © Petr Krejci.

Aquí os dejamos los enlaces a todos los videos de ‘Out of the Woods: Adventures of 12 hardwoods Chairs’, también incluimos el enlace al video del ‘Infinity Bench’ que fue uno de los 10 bancos expuestos en ‘Bench Years’ en el V&A:
 

Overview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8xFuV5rdfg&feature=plcp

Floating & Folded: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps2Od_hM_4U

Leftovers & Phyllida: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvEJoAMBTn4

Well Proven & Beeeench: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjZYa3Ziffg&feature=plcp

Num.4 & Designed Legacy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=519WKNJo5EM&feature=plcp

Squeeze & Solitude: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKpISRLQAtA&feature=plcp

Tree Furniture  Snelson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGeib3h-Neg&feature=youtu.be

Life Cycle Analysis in Practice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leUZ-sMpijs&feature=plcp

12 Students: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qljuqvkZrM

Infinity Bench: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmEqZTypzoY&feature=relmfu