As fresh as watermelon: Robert Stadler's fruity furniture
During Milan Design Week 2023, the Carwan Gallery presented a collection called "OMG-GMO", in which fruit and vegetables become lamps and furniture.
The exhibition at the Carwan Gallery was like a splendid fruit and vegetable stall at the weekly market. With the difference that the goods on display were not suitable for consumption because they were made of ceramic. Parisian designer Robert Stadler modelled the shapes of bananas and the like in order to integrate them into furniture and lamps.
Source: Pia Seidel
The collection is called "OMG-GMO" and was developed over two years with the ceramic manufacturer Bitossi Ceramiche. It consists of a series of quirky but functional ceramic objects that were first curated by Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte in a pop-up on the occasion of the Salone. Since then, they have been available in a limited edition in the Carwan Gallery collection.
For the collection, Stadler deliberately copies fruit in order to ironically transform the organic into something sculptural and functional and to make a "witty comment on the relationship between man and the environment", as he says himself. The addition of "GMO" (Genetically Modified Organism) is intended to draw attention to the fact that we have been "designing" our fruit and vegetables for years by means of agricultural domestication, selective breeding and biotechnology.
Source: Pia Seidel
Source: Pia Seidel
Source: Pia Seidel
Tomatoes, bananas, aubergines and many other products have long been artificially shaped to look flawless. No watermelon is naturally seedless. No cucumber is perfectly straight. Stadler reflects this in his designs by emphasising the artificiality of the designed fruit and vegetables that we grow and consume.
Source: Pia Seidel
Source: Pia Seidel
Source: Pia Seidel
The designer also plays with references to art history. Back then, it was common to depict fruit such as grapes or pomegranates and other symbolic objects in a still life. These Renaissance paintings still look so real in museums today that I sometimes want to take a bite. Especially because the cherries in them are not yet calibrated or the strawberries are not yet white.
Source: Pia Seidel
Source: Pia Seidel
Like a cheerleader, I love celebrating good design and bringing you closer to everything furniture- and interior design- related. I regularly curate simple yet sophisticated interior ideas, report on trends and interview creative minds about their work.