Collection Online
Search the Collection 搜索M+藏品
M+, Hong Kong, © Studio Swine
Studio Swine Swine 工作室
Metallic Geology 金屬地質
2014
This cabinet is made from aluminium foam, a material produced by injecting gas into molten metal. As the aluminium cools and hardens, the process of gas bubbles escaping creates a network of irregular voids in its structure. Strong, lightweight, and expensive to produce, the material is usually reserved for industrial-grade applications like automotive and aerospace manufacturing. Studio Swine studied the material in Hangzhou, a centre of aluminium foam production. They worked with local fabricators to mill a block of the metal foam into the cabinet’s rock-like shape, with a rough outer surface that suggests natural stone. The contrasting mirror-polish of the interior dividing shelves emphasises the artifice behind the work.
Studio Swine—a name the studio suggests stands for ‘Super Wide Interdisciplinary New Explorers’—is the design collaboration of United Kingdom–born Alexander Groves and Japan-born Murakami Azusa, established in 2011. The studio’s work blurs the boundaries between art and design, with filmmaking and site-specific installations also playing important roles in their practice. Illustrating this fluid approach to categories, the cabinet ostensibly functions as a furniture object, but its design alludes to deeper histories surrounding the collection and display of rocks and minerals for didactic, contemplative, or prestige purposes—or all three, as in the long-running Chinese literati tradition of scholars’ rocks. The Metallic Geology series makes a suggestive link between China’s cultural history and its industrial present.
Studio Swine—a name the studio suggests stands for ‘Super Wide Interdisciplinary New Explorers’—is the design collaboration of United Kingdom–born Alexander Groves and Japan-born Murakami Azusa, established in 2011. The studio’s work blurs the boundaries between art and design, with filmmaking and site-specific installations also playing important roles in their practice. Illustrating this fluid approach to categories, the cabinet ostensibly functions as a furniture object, but its design alludes to deeper histories surrounding the collection and display of rocks and minerals for didactic, contemplative, or prestige purposes—or all three, as in the long-running Chinese literati tradition of scholars’ rocks. The Metallic Geology series makes a suggestive link between China’s cultural history and its industrial present.
Loading