Hanging Swell Wave Shelf
Furniture · 2019-11 · San Francisco, CA
Pulled in opposite directions yet completely in equilibrium, the two shelves for Louis Vuitton’s Objets Nomades collection represent a balance of forces: between movement and stability, between new and old, and between hard and soft. When asked to respond to the theme of travel by the client, I sought to explore the inherent emotional and physical tension that comes with it. You are pulled between the appeal of the new and the comfort of home, between the rush of movement and the endless waiting, between the desire to go and the inertia of staying. I wanted the work to resonate with these forces and represent a balance between all things. The wood and leather represent and communicate the forces flowing through the piece. The leather straps are firm yet pliant, while the CNC-carved wooden shelves are simultaneously stable yet appear in motion. While the leather straps are in tension in the hanging version of the shelf, we used 3D printing to create complex cast metal inserts for the leather columns of the free-standing shelf. Although the straps appear in tension, they are ultra-thin compressive columns, making the shelves seem to be hanging in space.