Italian designer Enrico Marone Cinzano is on a mission to prove that sustainable and luxurious furniture are not mutually exclusive with the launch of his first solo exhibition at Hong Kong’s Pearl Lam Design gallery. Entitled ‘China Clean’, the exhibition features eight key sculptural pieces inspired by the designer’s frequent travels to mainland China.
Part of the collection centres around furniture crafted from recycled elm wood using traditional Chinese joinery, beeswax with natural lacquer finish and eco-friendly glue, including a flat-pack Qing chair with sailor-inspired carvings, a valet complete with a hand-carved skull, and a dramatic 'Double Happiness' cabinet. ‘I did all these strange things like hand-carving skulls, which is a little bit freakish,’ Cinzano admits. ‘But I wanted something that spoke to the Chinese and had a charm while still being functional.’
Other pieces, most notably Cinzano’s 'Fibonacci Table', made from stainless steel, petrified wood and tempered glass that was inspired by the titular Italian mathematician, reflect a more modernist style. ‘The wood is millions of years old and so elegant, so I left the cracks unvarnished,' he says. ‘The contrast with contemporary materials like steel and glass is very interesting.’
The collection also features a distinctly contemporary recycled leather chair and table featuring industrial-esque recycled steel hardware. The design, created in collaboration with Shanghai-based Stellar Works, deconstructs as a flat-pack for convenient eco-friendly transport. Creating a sustainable range of furniture in China may seem like an anomaly, but Cinzano says he was struck by the people’s enduring connection to nature. The country’s potential influence on sustainability is enormous, he explains.
‘Can you imagine what China could really do if they realised that they could make a product more efficiently and that would perform more effectively?’ he concludes.
Entitled ‘China Clean’, the exhibition features eight key sculptural pieces inspired by the designer’s frequent travels to mainland China, including a valet complete with a hand-carved skull (pictured)...
... and a dramatic 'Double Happiness' cabinet (pictured)
Other pieces reflect a more modernist style. Pictured: 'Flat Pack'
These include Cinzano’s 'Fibonacci Table' (pictured) made from stainless steel, petrified wood and tempered glass that was inspired by the titular Italian mathematician
Cinzano asks, ‘Can you imagine what China could really do if they realised that they could make a product more efficiently and that would perform more effectively?’ Pictured: 'Consolle'
INFORMATION
’China Clean: Enrico Marone Cinzano’ is on view until 14 April. For more information, visit Pearl Lam Design’s website
ADDRESS
Pearl Lam Design
Hong Kong SOHO
189 Queen’s Road West
Sheung Wan
Hong Kong
-
The moments fashion met art at the 60th Venice BiennaleThe best fashion moments at the 2024 Venice Biennale, with happenings from Dior, Golden Goose, Balenciaga, Burberry and more
-
Crispin at Studio Voltaire, in Clapham, is a feast for all the sensesNew restaurant Crispin at Studio Voltaire is the latest opening from the brains behind Bistro Freddie and Bar Crispin, with interiors by Jermaine Gallagher
-
Vivienne Westwood’s personal wardrobe goes up for sale in landmark Christie’s auctionThe proceeds of ’Vivienne Westwood: The Personal Collection’, running this June, will go to the charitable causes she championed during her lifetime
-
Art Basel Hong Kong 2024: what to seeArt Basel Hong Kong 2024 sees the fair back bigger and better than ever. Navigate the highlights with our guide
-
Dan Flavin’s fluorescent lights light up Basel‘Dedications in Lights’ celebrates Dan Flavin’s conceptual works, at Kunstmuseum Basel
-
Peter Blake’s sculptures spark joy at Waddington Custot in London‘Peter Blake: Sculpture and Other Matters’, at London's Waddington Custot, spans six decades of the artist's career
-
Oozing, squidgy, erupting forms come alive at Hayward Gallery‘When Forms Come Alive: Sixty Years of Restless Sculpture’ at Hayward Gallery, London, is a group show full of twists and turns
-
New glass sculpture creates a verdant wonderland at Apple’s Cupertino HQ‘Mirage’ at Apple Park is the work of Zeller & Moye and artist Katie Paterson, a shimmering array of glass columns that snakes through the grounds of the company’s monumental HQ
-
Man Ray’s sculptures go on show in New York‘Man Ray: Other Objects’ opens at Luxembourg + Co, New York, revealing their author’s ‘artistic revolution’
-
The best London art exhibitions to see nowYour guide to the best London art exhibitions, as chosen by the Wallpaper* arts desk
-
Erwin Wurm’s pop-coloured fantasy land at Yorkshire Sculpture ParkIn Erwin Wurm’s first UK museum show, ‘Trap of the Truth’, the artist transforms Yorkshire Sculpture Park into a slightly warped wonderland (10 June 2023 – 28 April 2024)
