Kostas Lambridis fused before charred - Dining Table
Price on request
Unique
2023
Wooden Varieties, American Walnut, Greek Walnut, Niagone, Iroko, Greek Olive, Wenge, Mahogany, Ash, Beech, Portuguese Cypress, Composite (Osb), Pine, Oak
198 x 76 x 242 cm
78 x 29.9 x 95.3 in
At the heart of Reverse Fireworks in Slow Motion, "fused before charred” embodies the exhibition’s core themes of metamorphosis, materiality, and meticulous craftsmanship.
Lambridis described the experience of crafting “fused before charred” as similar to his evolution as an artist, a symbolic journey from complexity to purity.
Reverse Fireworks in Slow Motion illustrates a departure from his previous practice - the intricate fusion of many diverse materials - as the artist now specifically investigates the nature of a single material, in this case wood. To capture the full breadth of its essence, Lambridis involved an incredible array of wooden varieties in “fuse before charred,” including American walnut, Greek walnut, niagone, iroko, Greek olive, wenge, mahogany, ash, beech, Portuguese cypress, composite (osb), pine, oak, and more.
Each of these components, despite their final harmonisation within the finished artwork, was treated and processed based on its own merits, considering their natural qualities and disparate origins. For jungle hardwoods, Lambridis employed traditional woodworking methods that show his deep respect for their exotic origins. Others are combined in skillful marquetry inlays, demonstrating his mastery of composition and detail.
Ready-made elements are intuitively integrated into the artwork, for example, an elephant figurine Lambridis found in an Asian market. His ability to assimilate these into the overall larger structure gives the impression that an object chosen at random was, in fact, destined to become a vital cog in this mechanism, somehow unwittingly made specifically for this artwork.
Destiny is a constant presence in Lambridis’ practice as he debates the parallels drawn between his artworks and human experiences, reflecting on the interplay of fate and choice. “fuse before charred” symbolizes the interweaving of preordained events with external forces’ influence, embracing both chaos and order. This is manifested in the artist’s ability to navigate, blending highly detailed, fractalized elements with broader planes of colour and texture and finding moments of serendipitous resolution between originally unrelated components.
Artist
Kostas Lambridis
Kostas Lambridis (born 1988, Greece) lives and works in Athens. After graduating from the School of Engineering, Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering at the University of the Aegean in Syros, he moved to the Netherlands to work in the studio of Nacho Carbonell, where he gained eight years of formative experience. During this time, he also completed a master’s degree in Contextual Design at the Design Academy Eindhoven, graduating cum laude in 2017.
