Echo Stool by Schimmel & Schweikle

Echo stool (Bird & tree)
Contemporary art; Functional art; 2020;
Wood, wood filament, resin, acrylic plaster, PU-foam and hardware
Measures: H 41.5, W 32.2, D 37.2 cm

This unique piece was exhibited in Schimmel & Schweikle's solo show 'A tree full of splinters' in the Antwerp based Everyday Gallery.

Rooted in material theory, Schimmel and Schweikle’s new series of works examines wood and its relationship to human progress, taking a close look at how it’s historical, cultural and political narratives have shaped the way we think of a design for centuries. Exploring the space between 3D modeling and craft, they invite us to reconsider the hierarchies between the hand made and then digitally manipulated. Simulated wooden ornaments assume a contiguously relational form to the texture they are mimicking, indistinguishable from the original except for the thin lines that give away its 3d printed manufacturing. Wooden shelving in the shape of a branch, so perfectly tree-like that it replicates itself; the branches organic bulges repeated as if it were a block print. The pieces make you wonder which form would qualify as ‘more real’, an algorithmic search engine might decide on the 3D printed branches, as the articulation of physical properties that are attributed to wood are so perfectly pronounced in this digitally produced form. Baudrillard predicted that the simulation will become more real than the real, yet in the work of Schimmel and Schweikle they remain equals, assisting each other in function and form.

The dynamic duo Janne Schimmel (Dutch) and Moreno Schweikle (German) met at the renowned Design Academy in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.