max lamb’s bronze poly series at design miami / basel 2011

max lamb’s ‘bronze poly’ series for johnson trading gallery at design miami / basel 2011 bronze poly chair all images courtesy of johnson trading gallery

new york’s johnson trading gallery presented a solo show of british designer max lamb on the occasion of design miami / basel 2011. on display was lamb’s ‘bronze poly’ series of small scale furniture pieces. each of the objects is hand-carved and sculpted from a solid block of low density expanded polystyrene (98 % air) which is then coated with rubber, and buried in sand. ingots of bronze are then heated to over 1100 degrees C and the molten metal is poured through a sprue into the sand, consuming the foam and investing the hidden cavity in bronze. over two hours of waiting, the solid bronze replica of the foam object is then broken from the sand. with only one attempt to invest the foam in bronze, every sacrifice is a risk. whether or not they are successful, each cast requires a new foam pattern. the series first started out with chairs, but has now expanded to stools and tables. you can take a look at how lamb hand sculpts his pieces from foam below:

the ‘making of’ the ‘bronze poly’ seriesvideo courtesy of max lamb

‘bronze poly’ table

‘bronze poly’ bench

‘bronze poly’ stools

‘bronze poly’ vase

‘bronze poly’ series on display at design miami / basel 2011

‘bronze poly’ vessellamb also developed a number of vessels / dishes using the same technique

‘bronze poly’ vessel

‘bronze poly’ vessel

foam sculpture of a chair before being cast in bronze

foam stools

foam vase

foam vessels

installation view of max lamb’s work at the johnson trading gallery booth at design miami / basel 2011

alongside ‘bronze poly’ was lamb’s ‘china granite project II’ a continued exploration of the ‘china granite project’ series he first begin in 2009 when he worked closely with a small stone yard called an li stone in chengnanzhuang, hebei province, located 350 km southwest of beijing. this latest collection of furniture is realized using an igneous granite known as sesame black that is native to fujian province, china.

‘china granite project II’ chairs and side table

‘china granite project II’ chairs and side table

‘china granite project II’ stools

‘china granite project II’ tables

‘china granite project II’ table

‘china granite project II’ benches

production of the ‘china granite project II’ series

production of the ‘china granite project II’ series

slicing a slab of granite down to size