THOMAS HEATHERWICK – EXTRUDING AND SPINNING
2012-01-16Highlights of the exhibition will include four extruded, mirror polished, nickel plated, aluminium benches made without fixtures or fittings – the world’s first single component of metal furniture, extruded by machine. Heatherwick Studio commissioned a specially designed die through which a single billet of aluminium was ‘squeezed’ into a chair profile, complete with legs, seat and back. The aluminium emerges in a raw unpolished finish, which is then cut and sometimes shaped; each cut piece of bench then undergoes 300 hours of polishing.
The project, 18 years since conception, takes technology used in the aerospace industry to produce the world’s largest ever extruded piece of metal. The graceful aluminium pieces each have a unique, dramatic form that combines the back, seat and legs into one element. Until now, extrusion technology has been limited to smaller dimension profiles, and since graduating from the RCA in 1994, Heatherwick has been searching for a machine capable of producing a chair with legs, seat and back from a single component.
Opposite – Untitled, 2011, Glazed Ceramic
Exhibition runs through to February 18th, 2012
Haunch of Venison
550 West 21st Street
New York
NY 10011
