Twist Bench

 

Continuing his investigation into the mediaeval leather-working technique of Cuir Bouilli, Simon Hasan has developed three new pieces commissioned by New York’s Johnson Trading Gallery, and exhibited at Design Miami in December 2009.

 

The new collection comprises a bench, credenza and pair of nightstands and explores the uses of boiled leather in combination with both raw and refined metal structures.

 

A carbon steel and leather bench sees leather stretched and twisted over a steel frame, as an evolution of the Twist stool which Hasan first developed in 2008.

 

Industrial and medieval crafts are combined in a steel and leather credenza comprising a TIG-welded carbon steel carcass, (keeping its raw patina of weld lines and heat discolouration), which sits in a hand-stitched leather shell formed around the cabinet’s base. Brass fittings and heavy leather strap handles complete the piece.

Finally, a pair of nightstands juxtapose the brutality of boiled leather with the refinement of mirror polished brass.

 

The pieces show developments in terms of scale and complexity, and build on Hasan’s earlier experiments in boiled leather vases and stools. This on-going materials investigation seeks to question preconceived notions of leather as a luxury material, and investigates the decorative and structural applications of a medieval process.

 

Boiled leather, carbon steel.

 

W1350 x D500 x H430