tristan cochrane: fish rocking chair

tristan cochrane’s ‘fish rocking chair’ cast aluminum, 2011

barcelona-based british furniture designer tristan cochrane has taken soft perishable sardines and found a way to use them as the building material in his most recent project. the individual components have been created through a process of lost wax casting, creating solid aluminum fish from their edible counterparts.

the ‘fish rocking chair’ is a one off piece sculpted by cochrane. it is fully functional and made entirely from cast components welded together. it was produced in eindhoven in the netherlands at the beeldenstorm foundry in 2011.

detail of the rocking chair’s construction

after an early morning trip to the fish market, the artist created a series of reusable plaster molds produced from different sizes and shapes of sardines. the moulds were used to create wax fish which are first assembled by hand into the various structural components required and then ‘sacrificed’ and replaced by final aluminum pieces. these elements are mechanically fixed together to form each of the necessary sections, then welded to produce furniture with an aesthetic which captures the spirit of the fish. the pieces are at once an homage to the beauty of fish in nature and a formal investigation into how we build furniture today.

detail of head rest

detail of seat

left: the original sardines from the fish market right: a final cast aluminum vacuum sealed to ensure freshness

cochrane needed to clean up the wax models by hand and individually set the fish together to create each element of the chair.

drawing on 12 years experience in the fishing industry in scotland before becoming a designer, cochrane has an affinity to work with marine life. knowing in depth how the fish behave and look when they are alive, is indispensable for transmitting this feeling into the final work.

setting the fish for the rocker bars, ensuring that it was in fact able to rock correctly.

left: pouring of molten aluminum into ceramic molds right: cooling and storage of molds.

left: releasing the hardened aluminum cast for the chair seat right: the wax version of the same component before making the ceramic mold (upside down)

seat component before removing the spruing

cochrane piecing together the form in the final days of production

left: shown set over a chair to help block the proper form before welding right: a happy cochrane in his finished rocking chair along with a previous work entitled ‘fish stool’ made in the same process, but much smaller

cochrane’s signature cast into a fish