Carpenters Workshop Gallery unveils Wonmin Park’s latest collections in On Earth

The principle of contrasts has been harnessed by designers and artists to amplify the visual interest, weave tales of materiality, and guide the viewer’s eye along the deliberate hierarchy of components. Although it often instils a sense of unease, there is an underlying and often inextricable sense of peace and equilibrium that ensues from the juxtaposition of divergent elements. Designer and artist Wonmin Park hailing from South Korea, has built his oeuvre around this poetic contrast, achieving a reputation for sculpting ethereal furniture designs that embody a dialogue between materials. The artist’s recent exhibition at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery—a leading gallery in collectible design and functional art in London, Paris, Los Angeles, and New York—is a dive into the creative universe he has conceived through years of practice. Titled On Earth, the exhibition marks a turning point in his creative process as volcanic rock and resin—materials that have shaped Park’s work—brought into conversation for the first time. The show will be on display from October 20, 2022 to January 7, 2023. “After dedicating myself to the transformation of materials, this new medium allows me to take a step back from my work as a designer,” says the Korean designer.

Although his practice is highly technical, the Korean artist primarily draws inspiration from modern and contemporary art and the natural world. This new design exhibition stems from Park's characteristic approach and work, which is ensconced at the crossroads of two contradictory phenomena: pragmatic human forms and natural forces of disorganisation. New mediums emerge and realise his reflection through a set of drawings and paintings. The poetics of the materials in his designs allow anyone to engage with the world and its change, whether natural or human-made. On Earth investigates the presence and balance of competing forces through Wonmin’s latest collections, Plain Cuts_Stone&Steel and Plain Cuts_Remediated.

As volcanic rock—the product of a geological process as old as time—and resin—entirely man-made—interweave a unique tapestry, On Earth comes forth as a metaphor for the relationship between man and nature. Rather than pitting the two materials against each other, Park composes them as if they were levitating in an unchanging balance. A total of 17 pieces take centrestage in the exhibition space, including a series of table designs, chairs designs, benches and a desk. Moreover, the viewer gets the opportunity to delve into Park’s drawings and paintings, representatives of the artist’s and his art's maturation process.

The volcanic rock pieces that are made in Japan feature a peculiar stone that was once used in the construction of temples—revealing a dark, iron-rich core that contrasts with its ochre and brown skin. These form the bases for the tables and chairs, while steel tops and backs are hand-crafted and complement the coarse rock. Amongst this ensemble of striking compositions, a recently completed work is presented: a table with a glass top which becomes a window through which the viewer catches a glimpse of the dark interior of the rock on which the structure rests. The furniture designer introduces the onlookers to a universe in motion, working from within according to a principle of instability and permanent erosion, or, in scientific jargon, entropy. The rock then transmutes into a story that makes humans suddenly appear in the immensity of time.

Park's creations vacillate between being a practical product design and an objet d’art; his furniture borders sculptural art and demands to be observed and appreciated visually. At the heart of the immersive experience, the viewer unlearns and relearns to perceive the world as it is, sans distortion by a purely anthropocentric point of view. The beauty that comes to the forefront in the exhibit is not manufactured and hence inimitable, without comprising the hackneyed human representative function. Through organic lines and a minimalist framework, Park states that everything on Earth, even man-made creations, is a product of nature, as we ourselves are. Harnessing natural and technological forces, the artist reconciles many dualities into materially concise artworks, singular creations of nature and man together.