COUCH UNTITLED

For years, the design practice of Max Jungblut has been characterised and described as an investigation into the materiality and aesthetics of nature, and the way nature is used by craftsmen, artists and designers to form and shape the built environment around us.

More than ten years into the productive profession of the designer, one can now begin to trace the trends and changes that have marked the developments within his artistic practice. Where in his early designs, the artist still makes clear distinctions between furniture pieces and autonomous objects, he increasingly starts to playfully negate the primarily practical-oriented functions of the furniture piece, as well as the purely aesthetic forms of the artistic object. Instead, Max Jungblut creates pieces that combine the two, all the while staying faithful to the artisan roots of the building process and the natural, sleek look of the final result.

The development culminates in this piece, Untitled (Couch) 2013-14, by the designer Max Jungblut. Though still referring to a form of seating, a practicality connected to the interior, the sheer monumental size of the piece – which measures 300 x 170 x 80 centimeter – constitutes a further disentanglement of the borders between functional object and artistic piece. The piece incorporates an astonishing 550 days of artistic labor, to which the precious attention for detail testifies. The masculinity of size is juxtaposed with the femininity of its round and organic form, resulting in a work of art that catches the eye in any interior it is placed in.

The works presented are not suitable for outside use. The Jardin & Park photoseries are artist impressions. The idea of taking the wood back to nature.