Designer Pao Hui Kao presented a collection of paper furniture as part of a solo exhibition at the Spazio Nobile gallery in Brussels. The “25 Seasons” project brought together 50 objects and decorative panels. Pao Hui Kao is a graduate of the Eindhoven Design Academy and a finalist in the 2022 Loewe Craft Prize.
The designer creates benches, tables, and stools from several layers of paper, combined into cellular structures and impregnated with rice glue. Once dry, the furniture becomes durable and suitable for everyday use. The designer coats some of the items with natural urushi varnish with the addition of colored pimentos to emphasize the textured surface of the items.
Unlike previous works in the Paper Pleats series, the objects in the exhibition seem lighter and more graphic. Pao Hui Kao’s palette includes red, blue, and black. She applies pigmented varnish to the pieces using a special tool, working with the thickness of the lines, as in traditional Chinese calligraphy. An allergy to certain chemical compounds forced the designer to turn to the study of natural materials, but after restrictions, they turned into a new field for experimentation.
The exhibition also features decorative panels by Pao Hui Kao from the Lacquer Leafs series. The technology for creating them is similar: the designer impregnates the paper with rice glue and then applies layers of urushi varnish and colored pigments. The 25 paintings represent the “25 seasons.” The concept references the lunisolar calendar used in Asian countries, with the addition of one more season to the standard 24. The work takes weeks and sometimes months before all 25 layers of varnish are cured. “Depending on the climate, the result will always be unpredictable,” adds the designer.
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