Viktor Udzenija

Tabouret Mutant abstracts and recontextualizes an iconic design object. The work is at once a meticulously crafted sculpture and a reaction to the status quo.

The Tabouret Berger, a low table-stool, was created in the 1950s by architect and designer Charlotte Perriand, who reinterpreted a simple cow milking stool from the French countryside into an elegant object now revered by collectors and design aficionados across the world.

In a bold Warholian gesture, Tabouret Mutant transforms the omnipresent Tabouret Berger, reconsidering its role as an object in the world and in commerce and culture. The work speaks to history and the future. Using simple 3D digital modelling software, Tabouret Mutant was designed in a single intuitive pass meant to capture the unfettered thoughts, memories, references, and emotions prompted during its conception. Based on this design, Tabouret Mutant is cast in Bohemian uranium glass, an otherworldly material that looks as though it could defy the laws of nature and shape-shift at any time. The material evokes both supernatural galactic wonders and earthbound dangers, conjuring the powers of Kryptonite and the perils of nuclear war. The mutant composition looks as if the stools have haphazardly molten into each other, frozen in a glowing moment.

Although Tabouret Mutant was conceived using contemporary digital technology, it is produced entirely by hand. Drawing on experience and knowledge passed down through generations, highly skilled artisans in North Bohemia combine tradition with determination, pushing the limits of glass making techniques, in order to form the Tabouret Mutant. Because of its complex shape, no master mould of it can be made; each piece is hand sculpted in colorless wax, and the resulting structure is used for the glass casting, which takes more than two months. Concluding the production process the piece is extensively carved by hand and given its final texture.