Wallpaper* Design Award winner Kunsik Choi reflects on duality in ‘The Mirror’

Korean designer Kunsik Choi was inspired by contrasts for his diptych of mirrors, winner of Best Reflection in the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2020. ‘Coldness and warmth, natural and artificial, good and bad, heavy and light: these images are always inherent in man and nature, creating an organic balance and subtle tension,’ he says. The duality of contrasts has long interested the Sweden-based designer, who has explored the idea of ‘putting conflicting concepts into harmony’.

Crafted from aluminium and leather, the pair of mirrors is an exercise in minimalist geometry. ‘Through the shapes and the texture of the materials, I wanted to express the reversal image that comes to mind when I think of a mirror,’ says Choi. The warmth of the vegetable-tanned leather contrasts with the cold metal to compelling effect.

The piece is part of a series of furniture and objects, including pond-shaped aluminium tables and stacked plinths, designed by Choi for the interior of eyewear brand Projekt Produkt’s boutique in Sinsa-dong, Seoul. The designer has created an immersive environment for the brand, with polished concrete floors, metal furniture and displays and neon lamps contrasting with subtle touches of colour, such as green upholstered benches, dusty pink carpet and curtains covering the full-length windows. The pared-back pieces fit seamlessly into the sleek industrial environment.

Choi worked closely with artisans in Seoul’s Mullae-dong neighbourhood, and every element of ‘The Mirror’ was made and assembled by hand, resulting in a perfectly balanced design.

INFORMATION

‘The Mirror’, €33,100, by Kunsik Choi

kunsik.com