MOVEMENT IN SILENCE

With its elegant curves, the Fritz Hansen Lily™ Chair is praised as an Arne Jacobsen masterpiece with functionality as a comfortable piece of furniture and a beautiful form which echoes the skill required for its advanced craftsmanship. As an homage to the Danish designer’s dedication and innovative approach to design, five Korean artists with unique positions within the world of crafts and design have been invited to join ‘Movement in Silence’, a project to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Lily Chair.

The five artists made unique interpretations of the creative and enchanting design of Arne Jacobsen’s Lily Chair, exploring a quiet kind of aesthetic that is quintessentially Korean and cannot be expressed directly through form. The Korean aesthetic is at once both plain but rich, reaching its full potential and guiding its spectators towards deep appreciation through the creator’s introspection rather than externally expressing or revealing their ideas. The structure of the Lily Chair became a framework onto which the artists incorporated their design philosophy, structural aesthetic, recurrent subject matter, and familiar production methods with new technology. The concepts that were expressed minimally and implicitly are refinement, void, expansion, and repetition.

This project has a greater meaning in that the Korean designs are harmonized with Danish design using Korean art and the knowledge of design experts.

We hope that the beauty of this project does not merely end as visual appreciation but can be understood and experienced through the senses of the whole body, including memory and intuition. 

Project director - Cha Jeongwook 
Graphic design - MYKC Kim kimoon
Photo and teaser video by Jang Sooin
Editor Kim Green
Key video Kim Jaehoon 

White Chair
2020
Clay, Cornstarch
80 x 50 x 50 cm
Technical Design. Ryu Jongdae

The Lily™ chair represents Arne Jacobsen’s deep interest in nature. The ‘White Chair’ focuses on the source behind the Lily chair’s form. Its upper part evokes the image of a flower, while its legs represents the stems of a plant. With overlapping cones, the sense of order behind the geometrical shape reflects the structures found in nature. It is made through the hand-building method whereby Baek employs her well-honed skills through years of practice to stack and pinch the clay. By contrast, the chair’s upper part is preserved in its original form, created through 3D printing. The texture reflects the pressure of the hands and is rendered into a pattern that is recreated through the repeated movements of the 3D printer. The familiarity of using our hands to produce art is combined with technology to create a nature form with a uniform texture.

The ‘Block Chair’ produces a subtle yet profound effect with hand-dyed pieces inside a series of transparent blocks. Inspired by Arne Jacobsen’s ability to transform mundane materials, as well as his experimentalism and simplistic form, the ‘Block Chair’ embodies the Yoon’s accumulated experimental technologies and expressions of acrylic with refined implications. The African lily agapanthus’s thin, dark blue petals are represented in a primitive and abstract way, carrying on Arne Jacobsen’s design language.

The ‘Primeval Chair’ depicts the moment of Arne Jacobsen’s conception of the Lily™ chair 50 years ago – incomplete yet filled with a sense of possibility. Casting – a manufacturing method that dates back to ancient times – was used to recall primitive ways of production. Natural marks made on the surface during this process and chunks of aluminum formed around the chair harden and reveal traces of the mold, resulting in an unexpectedly imperfect form. To reflect on the original prototype, the seat has been deliberately cut off to merely hint at the gradual perfection of the completed Lily chair.

Volume Chair
2020
Ash Wood
93.5 x 60.5 x 60 cm

The ‘Volume Chair’ takes its initial inspiration from the symmetrical balance of the Lily™ chair. With the original prototype as its inspiration, the ‘Volume Chair’ pushes the boundaries of form. The grave form created during the process of collecting and cutting wood mirrors the Lily chair’s flowing curves and prompts the observer to discover these implications through the senses. The ‘Volume Chair’ is part of a series of projects that implement arbitrary axes on point, line, and plane to create solid figures.

jungjooim.com

Paper Chair
2020
Ottchil (Lacquered) on Papier-mâché
80 x 52 x 53 cm

To design and produce the Lily™ Chair, Arne Jacobsen must have honed his skills and made many attempts. But the process is only shown in its finalised state. The ‘Paper Chair’ metaphorically interprets this process and simulates it during its production. After building the framework, the pulp is spread thin and evenly, letting it dry to produce the form. Then the chair is lacquered in a humid environment. The soft and pliable pulp and lacquer become layered through repetition and produce the final result.