What Do Designers Do With Wood?

Whether steam bent, sculpted, carved, or cut, wood is the word at WantedDesign Brooklyn’s highlight exhibition, ‘TIMBER!’. designers, carpenters, cabinetmakers, and woodturners are thrust into the spotlight in a showcase of experimental and exploratory collectible art and design pieces all made in industry city. IC — A network of 16 former factory buildings on the waterfront of sunset park, brooklyn — is home to a thriving community of creatives and makers who have honed their craft for decades. these works in wood for TIMBER! celebrate the fabricators and manufactures that carry on the torch of the complex’s rich industrial past.

Curated by Hannah Martin, TIMBER! at WantedDesign Brooklyn presents an ecosystem of works in wood, with pieces ranging from super-scaled sculptural benches, to small stools seemingly sourced from the forest floor. There’s matthias plessnig, who uses white-hot steam to mold long strips of wood into wild organic forms; egg collctive, a trio of designers who bring their background in art, architecture and woodworking to a line of elegant furnishings; and stephen talasnik, whose architecturally-inspired works turn birchwood into otherworldly sculptures.

Several of the artists and designers featured in the exhibition explore the idea of wood more abstractly and playfully 

Matthias Pliessnig specializes in functional sculptures made from steam bent wood. pliessnig uses the technique — where long strips of wood are heated with steam until pliable then molded into the desired shape — to create his signature undulating benches

Detail of matthias pliessnig’s steam bent white oak bench, ‘PVD’

Chen Chen & Kai Williams‘ prototype for an ’Emerald Ash Slotted Chair’ embodies the studio’s ongoing innovation of new techniques and materials

Source: DesignFloor