Work by Austrian designer Robert Stadler is on show at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in London in an exhibition entitled Bifurcations.
Pieces on show include Pools & Pouf!, (top image), Cloud, (above) and Pentaphone (below; see our previous story).
More stories about Robert Stadler on Dezeen:
Corso restaurant
Pentaphone
Lighting installation in a Parisian Church
The exhibition continues until 19th July.
Here's some more information from the Carpenters Workshop Gallery:
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BIFURCATIONS, Robert Stadler’s first solo show at Carpenters Workshop Gallery, offers a panoramic view on his production from 2004 to today. In scientific terminology, bifurcations explains the moment when a system starts to change direction and continues in a new, uncontrollable mode. Some of the works, such as Pools & Pouf! and Burning Desire can be seen as freeze-frames of an ongoing process, namely the vanishing of traditional aesthetic values.
Exhibition highlights:
Pools & Pouf!
2004, five leather elements, dimensions variable, edition of 8
The three-dimensional Pools & Pouf! consists of several different sized leather elements positioned on the floor and fixed to the wall. Resembling pools of tar, the forms seem to have sporadically reproduced on the gallery plane. The enigmatic pieces upholstered in black leather allude to the conventional Chesterfield sofa yet through its deconstruction directly question the tradition of furniture. Stadler contemplates the idea of furniture as a parasite to the home, both seemingly co-dependant upon each other.
24h
2005, LCD clock, edition of 3
24h is a hybrid between a light-box photograph and a mural clock. Once the viewer has detected the indicators of the hours and minutes (her beauty spot and her left eye) they will be able to read the time (in this instance 10 past 1pm). The porn actress’ face undergoes various distortions just as everybody experiences during a busy day’s work! The piece reverts to its original likeness twice daily, at noon and midnight. Above: 24h Linda, 2005, LCD Clock, Edition of 3. Below: 24h Tanya, 2008, LCD Clock, Edition of 8
Pentaphone
2006-2008, soundproof cabin, adjustable height, H 70 L 75 W 70 cm, edition of 8 Just like a traditional telephone cabin, the Pentaphone offers a sub-space within a public environment protecting the individual from ambient noise. As today we carry our phones with us, the cabin acts as an empty shell, reduced to its sound-isolating function. The object is upholstered with a sound absorbing foam and textile.
Robert Stadler was born in 1966 in Vienna. He studied design at the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan, then at ENSCI/Les Ateliers in Paris, where he co-founded the RADI DESIGNERS group. Since 2000 he has worked independently while simultaneously continuing his activity with the group. Below: Foreveryoung (L), 2004, White carrara marble
Robert Stadler revels in exploring the exhibition space in order to scramble the usual categories of art and design. He questions the status of the object as work of art or product as well as the boundaries between preciousness and lowliness, elegance and vulgarity, between the serious and the absurd. Robert Stadler lives and works in Paris and Rio de Janeiro.
ROBERT STADLER
BIFURCATIONS
18 June - 19 July 2008 / Opening 17 June, 6 - 9pm
3 Albemarle Street, London, W1