PELLE’s furniture and lighting designs urge imaginations to run ‘Far and Wide’

PELLE, a Brooklyn-based independent design studio founded by Jean and Oliver Pelle in 2011, believes in the integration of artistic exploration with architectural adeptness and ingenuity, to produce handcrafted objects, furniture and lighting designs. With a key focus on innovation and technical mastery, the two designers (who are trained as architects) levy attention to manifesting their vision in a functional mien, rather than solely ascribing an analogous aesthetic to their work.

While the couple now resides in New York, USA, Jean hails from South Korea and Oliver was born in Germany. Jean grew up witnessing her father, a professional sculptor, while Oliver was drawn to geometric principles and systemic structures on account of his father, a structural engineer. Having studied architecture, both the designers—with their distinct nascent exposures to different aspects of the building and making processes—imbue the works produced by PELLE with a unique artistic quality and craftsmanship.

Some of the duo’s latest works, launched earlier this year as part of the exhibition Far and Wide, serve as material manifestations of their style. This collection includes seven new metal and wooden furniture and lighting pieces, via which the Pelles showcase their skill in form-making, painting and the versatility of handling different materials.

When asked why the showcase of these objects was done under the moniker Far and Wide, PELLE shares, “The exhibition is called Far And Wide because for us, the ideas of this new work span broad categories and methods of making. We delve more deeply into personal histories which we had not really done before; we introduced landscape artwork into our designs which Jean is drawing or painting at the studio; and we designed new iterations of lines that we started more than a decade ago, alongside completely new lighting works. There is a wide creative scope here, but it also touches on various geographies and moments of time in our lives which also span far and wide.”

The exhibition was designed to showcase three archetypal domestic scenes within the PELLE showroom. “A lamp, a chair and a picture hanging on the wall is our idea of an archetypal domestic scene. With those three objects, you already get a sense of space and together they give immediate meaning. The scenes conjure an atmosphere of possibilities - references to colours used in early modernist European homes, while original artworks by Jean Pelle introduce pictures as new design objects,” the furniture designers share.

One of the three scenes comprised the installation of the Carrizo Picture Cabinet, which at once manages to serve as a picture, a dresser and a window view out. An original artwork by Jean, the scenery on the oak cabinet is inspired by the Carrizo Plain in California.

The designers elaborate on the reverence that this locale holds for them: “The Carrizo Plain is a vast and remote grassland preserve in California’s central valley. It was there that we took our first road trip together. The land is characterised by a quality of light and continuous flatlands that swell and slope into carved valleys and mountain ranges. The remoteness and the emptiness of the plains are haunting but very exhilarating to be surrounded by. It is a place of dualities that remain strong in [our] consciousness. Originally, the Carrizo Cabinet was intended for our own bedroom, however, like most of what we create, it usually finds its way as new work that we release out to the world.”

While the landscape drawing was envisioned and executed by Jean first, the cabinet was designed around it later. Jean made the landscape artwork with oil pastels, which were thickly applied onto the wood board panels directly. The grids on the cabinet are a reference to windows, illustrating an outdoor view. On the other hand, it can also be viewed as the referential grid that guides the drawing process. The product designers intend to draw out and make more pieces of the Carrizo Picture Cabinet.

The second scene comprised the installation of the Helm Pendant 3 suspended above the 1x2x3 Bench with the painting Jeju Clouds decorating the corner. Jeju Clouds, inspired by photographs of clouds on the subtropical island of Jeju in South Korea, are also rendered in oil pastels. The third scene showcased a pair of Quadrat Armchairs and Helm Sconces flanking a new painting titled Chain Link. The patterned chain-link fence painted on the canvas fabric is inspired by the city of Los Angeles.

The Helm collection, a series of new lighting formworks, is built using heavy aluminium plates and exhibits expressive welded joinery. Characterised by hard angles and crude geometries, their form is inspired by the metal ductwork, industrial machinery and roof eave lines that now permeate our vicinal spaces regularly. The intention of adopting this aesthetic for the product designs was to give this utilitarian material and aesthetic a sculptural twist.

Beyond the visceral vision that guides the furniture design at PELLE is the stylistic similarity of the grid which manifests in the Carrizo Picture Cabinet and the Quadrat collection of upholstered oak armchairs. A recurrent motif in PELLE’s pieces, the grid in the chair design showcases an interplay between hardness and softness as well as exactitude and ease. Another recent piece by PELLE is the Lure lamp design, which is inspired by plants and illustrates the theme of Far and Wide by capturing the softness of a natural entity in an industrial material.