BCXSY: The Difficult Craft

(adam štěch) The talented Dutch-Japanese duo, which presents a fusion of the traditions of Japanese craftsmanship with a Dutch conceptual approach under the mysterious name of BCXSY, exhibited the new collection of Join wooden screens as a homage to precise craftsmanship in the Spazio Rossana Orlandi gallery during Design Week in Milan.

Boaz Cohen and Sayaka Yamamoto won acclaim with the Change! collection of soft furniture pieces and accessories last year in Milan. Even though their work is very diverse, individual projects are linked by their love of handicraft and unconventional use of materials. The Change! collection is made from soft rubbery foam that looks like a rough stone at first sight. However, when one touches it, he/she reveals an unusual tactility of objects, which shifts them onto a completely different level. The lamp, in the form of a clumsy candlestick, can be switched on when one simply pushes the object itself.

The latest Join collection introduces completely different forms. Unlike the hybrid object from the Change! collection, individual wooden folding screens are made with a surprising handicraft precision, thanks to which the designers achieved an unusually pure fine-art version. The three screens create an abstract composition of geometrical wooden frames with interweaving grids that produce new surface patterns. The individual screen parts look as if they were simply leaning onto one another and create an optically denser net of laths in overlaps. In fact, this impression is reality. The irregular angles and arrangement of the individual laths was used by the designers on purpose because they wanted to test the possibilities of the traditional craft. Such irregularities are fairly common in the Japanese treatment of this type of wood. Nevertheless, Mr. Tanaka from Tokyo coped with difficult conditions and transformed the Japanese Hinoki wood into fascinating geometrical artifacts. BCXSY manufactures each of the three screens in a limited edition of eight pieces.

www.bcxsy.com

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