Designer Chris Wolston has always had a fascination with the natural world, whether he’s crafting a mirror encircled by polychromatic hot-house leaves or weaving anthropomorphic wicker seats that beckon you to take a seat with wild, wiggly arms.
This week Wolston – who splits his time between New York and Medellin, Colombia – unveiled his ultimate homage to Mother Nature in a new show at Manhattan design gallery The Future Perfect. Called Gilding the Lily, the new body of work comprises some 30 pieces inspired by the lush gardens surrounding the designer’s Colombian studio.
Many of the pieces relied on direct casts of leaves. Using the lost wax technique – a method typically used in jewelry-making – Wolston and his team created monumental molds of the foliage to create striking tables, vases and a chandelier. One lozenge-shape bronze credenza is made entirely of delicate cast daisies. ‘The show is called Gilding the Lily because we really wanted to develop these decorative motifs with these recognizable natural forms,’ Wolston tells Wallpaper*.
For this series, Wolston was also inspired by Art Nouveau, a slight departure for a designer typically associated with playful, Postmodern-inflected forms. ‘I was looking at Art Nouveau and the style of abstraction it applied to create decorative art,’ he says. ‘I wanted to use that formula and take a natural motif and use it almost like a fabric pattern. It’s the idea of taking a leaf and turning it into a repeat as a way of removing it from being a leaf.’
In some pieces, the textile idea is interpreted literally, as with a hand-woven tapestry created in collaboration with Beni Rugs, or a pair of aluminum armchairs and matching ottoman upholstered in a leafy fabric by Arts and Crafts grandfather, William Morris.
A standout piece, a powder blue tufted sofa that is studded with cast daisies, contains an Art Nouveau Easter Egg: Early 20th-century art historian Irene Sargent posited that the movement’s fascination with excess and the ‘wavy line’ might destroy natural forms.
In a design-historical wink, Wolston gave the sofa a polished aluminum base that’s as squiggly as an ocean swell.
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