Philippe Malouin’s steel furniture exhibited in Athens

Philippe Malouin’s multifunctional steel furniture is made from found objects

The Breeder gallery in Athens presents a series of steel furniture by Philippe Malouin. Entitled “Steel Works”, the exhibition marks the solo debut of the Canadian designer based in London in Athens and merges an industrial design language with a luminous palette of saturated hues. The collection was presented in preview on the gallery’s stands at Frieze London 2021 and at Fiac, before being presented in its entirety in Athens.

Showcasing sculptural steel furniture and lighting design, the collection merges Malouin’s emphasis on craftsmanship and industrial design. The shapes of the pieces are obtained through compositions of basic components, objects found by the designer in scrapyards in Greece and the United Kingdom.

Steel furniture by Philippe Malouin

Mobile workstation: lawn bowling roller and seat, steel tube, plate and C-channel

Made between Brighton and Athens, the process is inspired by the Dadaist cutout tradition, which involves cutting out and rearranging parts (usually text). “By instinctively stocking up on steel objects and rearranging them ad hoc, Malouin’s intention is to create a new meaning and a new value”, we read in a text presenting the works. The results are multifunctional “hybrid objects” that create an interaction between two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms and challenge our perception.

The collection includes a chair consisting of a bench support from an Athens park and a 20 kg weight plate, a lamp consisting of an I-beam and a mobile workstation based on a roller of lawn bowling and a seat. These found objects are combined with standard building elements such as pipes, plates, brackets and rebar. The collection’s bright colors represent the place of manufacture, with red and green for the UK, and blue and light blue for Greece.

Top: chair in square tubes, folded plate, support, rebar, steel disc, steel. Above: I-beam table lamp, bent plates, steel

A continuing fascination for Malouin is finding everyday materials and reusing them as the basis for his desirable designs – for example his “Press” mirror for Umbra Shift, an intuitive design object made by simply pressing and polishing a tube. steel, or the most intricate design in the series of “Turntables” he created for the Santa Barbara Museum, whose design is based on a standard circular groove, which had intrigued the studio team.

“These are ultimately artistic manifestations where their functionality is not always limited,” says The Breeder gallery, introduction to Malouin’s new works. “By probing its borders to the limits and beyond, Malouin here creates a rather surprising language of forms. §