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
-
Every cloud: discover Shiqi Fu’s dreamy jewelleryShiqi Fu translates childhood fantasy into playful jewellery design
-
Aesop’s ethereal boutiques: explore the brand’s design philosophy in a short film
Perfectly integrated into the local urban fabric, Aesop’s three new boutiques showcase the brand’s powerful yet pared-back design philosophy
-
When Barber Osgerby met Giulio Cappellini
Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby tell Wallpaper* about working with design visionary Giulio Cappellini, Guest Editor of our October 2023 issue
-
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 now
Your guide to the best London art exhibitions, as chosen by the Wallpaper* arts desk
-
Erwin Wurm’s pop-coloured fantasy land at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
In 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)
-
Power, space and fantasy: what to look out for at Art Basel 2023
Art Basel 2023 (15 – 18 June) unites site-specific pieces with large-scale installations
-
Sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro transforms Fendi’s Rome HQ into a theatre of myth and magic
Fendi’s Roman HQ sets the scene for ‘Il Grande Teatro delle Civiltà’ a major show by Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, who has also created a one-off edition of the house’s iconic Peekaboo bag. Read more in the July 2023 Issue of Wallpaper*, on newsstands 8 June
-
Superflex on building an underwater city for fish: ‘there are different rules down there’
Danish art collective Superflex discuss their ambitious Super Reef, an underwater urbanisation project aiming to restore more than 55 square kilometres of stone reef in Danish seas
-
Bally Foundation’s new Lake Lugano headquarters is an art-filled paradise
The Bally Foundation inaugurates its new headquarters in a 1930s villa overlooking the majestic Lake Lugano, Switzerland with the group show ‘Un Lac Inconnu’ (An Unknown Lake)
