Exploring space: Spaghetti bench and other works by Pablo Reinoso.

Working in Paris since 1979 Argentinian born artist Pablo Reinoso has been exploring the idea that timber, or lumber as Americans call wood sawn into standard-sized pieces, came from a real tree. A living thing that once grew wilfully, responding of its own accord to its environment by following nutrient and light and perhaps bending to the prevailing wind. The artist started with an innocuous design that utilized wood. A typical park bench of a kind that is reproduced all over the world. In allowing the timber of the bench to “grow” again the pieces become like branches and lose the function temporarily bestowed upon the material when it was cut and shaped. The “bench” now appears free to “roam” the space in the way a vine or creeper might explore the architecture over which it climbs. Pablo Reinoso's earlier work explored the Thonet chair from 1859. Here the chair's form extended into the space or into other chairs and in so doing stopped being a chair whose singular purpose is to be sat upon, and became the object of attention, the art piece.

Gratitude to eVolo for introducing this artist to me, and galeriepieceunique for reference to the Thonet pieces. Spaghetti bench is made by Carpenters Workshop Gallery.