London designer Ron Arad has created a polycarbonate version of his famous Well Tempered Chair for the forthcoming exhibition of his work at the Barbican in London.
Called Well Transparent Chair, the piece is made in a limited edition of 100 and consists of bent plastic sheets bolted together under tension.
The design is on show at the Timothy Taylor Gallery in London but will move to the Barbican next week when the exhibition opens.
Ron Arad: Restless will be on show at the Barbican 18 February 2010 to 16 May 2010. Dezeen are online media partner for the exhibition - look out for our movies featuring Arad talking about the show and his work on Dezeen soon.
More stories about Ron Arad on Dezeen:
Design Museum Holon (September 2009)
No Discipline at MOMA (July 2009)
Ron Arad at Timothy Taylor Gallery (April 2009)
Guarded Thoughts (November 2008)
Rotator for Teuco (April 2008)
Restless at Friedman Benda gallery (September 2007)
Ingo Maurer (2007)
Photos courtesy Ron Arad Associates.
Here's some more information from the gallery:
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Ron Arad - Well Transparent Chair
8 - 20 February 2010 / 4 - 12 March 2010
Timothy Taylor Gallery is delighted to present a new work by Ron Arad, created to benefit Barbican Art Gallery in conjunction with their forthcoming major survey: Ron Arad: Restless.
In 1986, Ron Arad designed Well Tempered Chair, bolting sheets of steel together to form a chair full of tension. Using the archetypal club chair as its model, its design is simple - four pieces of tempered steel form the shape - two for the arms, one for the seat, and one for the back. The engineering of the piece is plain to see and according to Arad 'what you see is what you get - there is no illusion'.
Well Transparent Chair, 2010 is a contemporary re-interpretation of the original. The basic architecture of the chair remains the same, but it has been re-imagined by Arad in transparent polycarbonate, radically altering the personality of the piece.
Both 'tempered' chairs subvert our expectation of how a chair should behave. The chair's apparent immateriality induces an anxiety about its ability to support us - Â it is, in fact, comfortable and sound - unexpectedly so. This playful duplicity between how a work looks and how it feels is one of the reasons why the original 'Well Tempered Chair' has proved such an enduring work.
This new piece embodies much of what makes Arad such an important figure - for all of its modernity and technical sophistication there is something very human about it.
Produced in an edition of 100 signed and numbered pieces, the Well Transparent Chair will be available exclusively from the Timothy Taylor Gallery and at Barbican Art Gallery priced at £5,000. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each chair will benefit Barbican Art Gallery.
Ron Arad: Restless is the first major exhibition of Arad’s work in the UK. It opens at Barbican Art Gallery on 18 February and runs until 16 May 2010. Spanning three decades, the show traces the development of Arad’s designs from his early post- punk approach, assembling works from readymade parts to his technologically-advanced sculptural objects made of highly polished metals. Featuring a dramatic installation design by Ron Arad Associates using the latest LED display technology, the exhibition also includes architectural designs and instantly recognisable mass-produced objects. Well Transparent Chair is one of over 150 works presented in the exhibition.
Timothy Taylor Gallery represents Ron Arad in the UK and mounted a critically acclaimed exhibition of his recent work in 2009.
Ron Arad
‘Well-Transparent Chair’, 2010
Polycarbonate and wing nuts
80 x 80 x 100 cm
Edition of 10o