London designers Tim Simpson and Sarah van Gameren of Studio Glithero created a table by pouring coloured concrete down a spiral chute at Experimenta in Lisbon earlier this month.
Buckets of the coloured material were poured down the chute from the top of a ladder, creating a surface textured with drips and spills.
The mould was then removed, leaving an imprint from the wooden panels in the bottom and sides of the table top.
"We're always trying to capture this moment when something becomes what it is from nothingness, so we're trying to create that moment in the purest gesture," says Simpson.
"The material is perfect for it because you can see what the movement of the material was at that moment that it froze into becoming a table," van Gameren explains.
The performance took place as part of an exhibition called Lapse in Time, curated by Hans Maier-Aichen.
Here's some more information from Studio Glithero:
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The Long Drop
We stand on a ladder, marking a point, high up in the air where it all begins. Where the pen first hits the paper and the story starts. From this point, the substance for our design flows like lava, brought down by gravity to eventually settle in its new shape.
The long drop is a concrete table cast in a wooden pouring chute shaped like a rollercoaster. From a ladder buckets of fluid concrete are poured down the chute until it sets rock-hard. When the wooden mould is filled, the chute is dismantled leaving a table that is forever married with its pouring channel spiralling up in the air.
The lower part of the table is faceted with the wood imprint of the mould, while the surface is unpredictable and organic.
Big lazy tongues of concrete, drips and spills are frozen in the moment; A lapse of time.
The aim of our work is to capture and present the moment things are made, when an object becomes what is from nothing. In our earlier works such as Big Dipper (2007), a machine that dips candle wax chandeliers, the end products served as an artefact of the performance. The drips and nuances of the pieces are informed by the moment they were created, but the object and process, in this case the machine, were separate parts.
The idea for The Long Drop arose when we were looking for a way to capture the actual moment of creation within the object itself. We wanted to create a table that would always be connected to the channel from which it derived. The twelve meter long table disregards the idea of design being determined by cost or transport efficiency. Our aim is juxtaposition.
The individual pieces of the mould are brought into a building and assembled; creating an enormous solid piece that is too large to leave through the doorway in which it came.
The Long Drop was conceived as a space filling, sight specific installation, and at Experimenta 09 we present our first half-size experiment that will take place during the opening week. The visitors are invited to witness the creation of this first trial from beginning to end.
With the support of Funds BKVB, we are researching The Long Drop for 2010.