Smudge (W161)

In 1992 we went with the Crafts Council to New York to take part in the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. We wanted to use this opportunity to make a signature piece and decided to employ historically understood English Materials - oak, paint and gilding in a very contemporary design. We designed a chest of drawers as a tall narrow tower reminiscent of the tall towers of New York. Our work is always influence by what we enjoy - architecture, painting and sculpture. At this time we had recently discovered the work of the artist Sean Scully, paintings dominated by strong graphic form and the use of coloured stripes. This influence can be seen in the chest of drawers we designed for ICFF. With our historical nod to medieval English furniture and our continuing interest in wood, we wanted to make the piece from solid timer. We therefore had to find a way to create the graphic effect we wished to achieve without compromising the structure and function of the piece. To achieve this, the drawer fronts and doors are solid wood, with solid 5mm thick slats of oak applied to form the strong graphic effect. A technique used in English furniture of the 16th century called parquetry. Every other slat in the design has been fumed with ammonia. A traditional technique; the fumes from the ammonia react with the tannin in the oak to give the wood a darker colour so we achieved the stripy effect. The top of the cabinet has an open compartment covered by a pair of striped doors. These are cut away to reveal a very small central drawer the front of which has a diamond pattern in red paint and gold. There are no handles on the lower stack of drawers - instead the front edge of the sides of the cabinet have been carved to provide scoops so the drawers can be pulled open from behind the drawer fronts. These scoops have also been gilded. Although well received at the ICFF we did not sell the cabinet and it was returned to England where it later sold through an exhibition at Sotheby's in London to the chief executive of an American Company. As soon as it sold we began thinking of a new tall narrow cabinet to make as a speculative piece. In time this lead to a whole series, some made speculatively to enable us to carry out new ideas and forms and some made to commission for private clients. By 2005 we had become well known for our Stripe Series cabinets and were approached by David Dewing from the Geffrye Museum to consider a solo exhibition to display this body of work. Cabinets were borrowed back from private clients and from public collections in Museums. We decided to use this opportunity to make another speculative Stripe Series chest and Smudge was the result. Smudge again is constructed from English oak. The majority of our Stripe Series chests are in this timber. We enjoy using it because of its figure, strength and versatility. We are able to change its colour by fuming or fuming and liming or ebonising and we have also often used bog oak, timber which has been lying in an East Anglian bog for around 5000 years - here the tannin in the timber has reacted with the acidic water to become a very dark brown/black in colour. The majority of the Stripe Series cabinets are very minimal in design and quite regimented in their graphic decoration. With Smudge we wanted to try something new, more random, to achieve something softer. As the series had progressed we realised the value of the chest as a free standing piecw which gave it a more sculptural presence while still retaining its major function as furniture for storage. It has been a major factor in our work over the past 28 years that our furniture is primarily functional and you can store your socks or shirts in it while it has a sculptural presence of its own. The form of Smudge remained that of a tower, in line with the majority of Stripe Series cabinets we had made to date. To form the handles for the drawers in this case we over sailed the drawer fronts by amount 10mm to provide a grip. We carried this over sail across the tope of the piece and down the back. This now gave us the opportunity to make the front and back face appear to be identical while only allowing the drawers to be pulled open from one side. About three quarters of the slats on the front and back faces were cut in two. One end of each of the shorter pieces was then burnt with a blow torch to scorch the timber. The unmarked slats were laid on the substrate first, pushed up to a stop, which provided a sharp line across the drawer fronts and the back panel. The scorched slats were then laid tight to this line and the random scorching produced a soft smudgy edge. This detail is identical front and back - it looks if the cabinet has been pierced a by a hot knife. Smudge was probably designed about mid way in our Stripe Series of cabinets. It was a departure from what had gone before and we had made nothing similar since. The stripe Series has progressed and developed and ideas from it have influence other pieces of furniture over the years. Apart from our designs for Street Furniture and benches we are probably best known for our Stripe Series cabinets. Two public galleries hold stripe Series cabinets as part of their collection. The Cheltenham Museum and Art Gallery has Shift in oak and bog oak and the Victoria and Albert Museum has purchased A Cabinet with 10 Drawers in ebonised and natural oak. Three further public galleries hold work related to the Stripe Series: Shipley Art Gallery has A Shelf with Two Drawers, a wall hung piece, The Fitzwilliam Museum has the Marriage Chest commissioned and donated by Sir Nicholas Goodison, and Brighton and Hove Museums have Two Shelves and a Drawer, also wall hung.