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Madeline Isakson presents styrofoam furniture at NYCxDesign
The chair and lamp from the EPS collection
Image: Courtesy of Madeline Isakson
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Madeline Isakson presents styrofoam furniture at NYCxDesign

The American designer utilised styrofoam salvaged from garbage bins to construct chairs, tables, lamps, and more.

by Almas Sadique
Published on : May 20, 2023

The beauty of objects designed by New York City-based Madeline Isakson lies in the serendipitous process employed to build them. Her product design does not emerge from the lines sketched in her sketchbook. Instead, they are constructed by assembling and montaging materials and discards found and salvaged by Isakson from garbage bins and roadside scraps. She utilises these materials to build both usable furniture and decorative sculptures. Instead of breaking down the materials and shaping them in forms Isakson might have imagined, the furniture designer attempts to use their existing geometries. In doing so, she ends up creating objects with unique nuances that would have been almost impossible to add to formally designed entities.

Isakson, who is currently building pieces for her ongoing collection, EPS (Expanded Polystyrene Series), is all set to showcase two new pieces—a chair and a lamp—from the series at WantedDesign's Launch Pad during NYCxDesign. WantedDesign, founded in 2011 by Odile Hainaut and Claire Pijoulat, is a platform that promotes and fosters designs by the international creative community. Its showcase at the NYCxDesign festival is an attempt at bringing to the fore up-and-coming creatives and prompting dialogues regarding new developments in the realm of design.

Isakson’s practice subsists on the exploration and understanding of consumer culture. She attempts to utilise material exploration and object building as a means to transform objects into pieces that shine a light on consumerism, while also serving as usable furniture design. “The goal of this series is to rethink the possibilities of what we formerly considered ‘trash’ and create a new domestic aesthetic that sees beauty and humour in the mundane," she explains. The chair and lamp created by the American designer are made using discarded styrofoam packaging, cast in aluminium and referred to by her as “monolithic detritus.”

Ahead of the product designer’s showcase at ICFF from May 21 to 23, 2023, STIR got in touch with the designer, in order to learn more about her practice and the pieces she will present during NYCxDesign.

Almas Sadique: What is the idea and inspiration behind the collection?

Madeline Isakson: All of my work pretty much exists within the same world and line of inquiry as the EPS series, which is how can I edit, remix, replicate or transform these mundane or thrown out objects and materials, and mess with the common perception associated with them. I cannot change the way we consume, or put a stop to wasteful modes of production, but I can try to make someone think about the lifecycle of the things they purchase and throw out. I also think styrofoam is particularly interesting for a couple of reasons. One, a lot of research and experimentation went behind developing this material, the purpose of which is to safeguard our valuable purchases—it's almost a collaboration between me and an unknown packaging manufacturing designer. They are also forms I would never come up with on my own, saying "I want to design a chair" and that's part of the fun of designing them.

Almas: What is the life cycle of the furniture pieces, and how will they be utilised or discarded after the exhibition?

Madeline: The lifespan of landfill styrofoam is 500 years, so I would love for my pieces to be kept in people’s homes instead of being thrown in the garbage. While they may be made out of discarded materials, I think the transformation from lightweight, mass-produced foam to heavy and solid aluminium furniture subverts their original value and they become one-of-a-kind art pieces. I think it's interesting to take things we have all thrown away without a thought and see it make its way back, as a cherished piece of furniture or art. That being said I really enjoy living with the things I make and seeing them sitting next to the work that I have traded with talented friends or collected from other designers and artists that I admire.

Almas: Describe the process of making each piece.

Madeline: I start by walking around my neighbourhood after everyone has put their bins out for trash pick-up day. I usually find a majority of my hauls in my neighbours’ recycling bins and discarded appliance boxes. Once people know you are collecting styrofoam, though, they just start bringing you all of the pieces that they may have found or were going to throw away. A co-worker will bring in a piece of packaging and say "I think this is a lamp - and this is the base," etc. It kind of becomes a fun design conversation about an unlikely material. From there, I start piecemealing things together and trying to figure out what they want to be. I try not to cut or alter anything and instead, use the materials and objects as I find them, with their existing volumes. Once I am happy with the piece, I take each individual part and start making sand moulds for casting the molten aluminium.

I work in higher education and am lucky enough to have access to some amazing resources and extremely talented people, including an incredible foundry at College for Creative Studies in Detroit. I got to steer the aluminium pours for these particular pieces which was a first for me! After they are cast, it's a long process of cleaning up each individual piece and fastening them together. Once I begin to reassemble them, I have to start figuring out how to actually make the lamp design a lamp or the chair a comfortable chair design. Each piece is unique and completely different, so there is a bit of trial and error involved. I take any of the unused styrofoam to a local recycler.

Almas: Tell us about your future plans of working on similar concepts and ideas, with the same or different materials

Madeline: My desk and studio floor are usually always filled with things I find on the street or in a dumpster, or maybe a collection of toys I saw at the 99cent store, or a random assortment of knickknacks and playmate coolers I picked up at the thrift store. I never really know what the end result will end up being but it starts with a lot of experimentation. I'm always picking up new skills and learning about new materials and my work is heavily influenced by what tools and resources I have access to.

Madeline Isakson will showcase her furniture pieces from May 21-23, 2023, at WantedDesign Manhattan at the Jacob K Javits Center, as part of the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), during NYCxDesign.

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