Cherry Tree by Tom Price
Posted in: Tom Price
British designer Tom Price has made an enchanted grove of cherry trees out of plastic tubes and cable ties.
The slender cherry trees occupied an entire room at Industry Gallery in Washington D.C last month, casting delicate shadows on the surrounding walls.
Price was inspired to make the installation when he visited the US capital last spring during the National Cherry Blossom Festival.
He used special tools to heat the plastic tubing so that he could then bend and twist it into the desired shape.
Cable ties hold the bundles of tubing together, forming trunks and branches.
The designer fused small cross-sections of the tubing together to form a canopy that creates a dappled light underneath.
We recently published an interview with Tom Price on Dezeen Screen – watch the video here.
Here is some more information from the gallery:
WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 27, 2011) — INDUSTRY will be launching its Fall 2011 design season with the first U.S. solo exhibition of work by innovative British artist and designer, Tom Price. Specializing in modern furniture products, sculpture and lighting design, process plays a key role in Price’s work which has been bought by international museums, galleries and private collectors. Much of Price’s work is made using unconventional materials. In fact, he often finds it necessary to invent new tools and techniques in order to get the required results from certain fabrications. But Price sees this as an intrinsic part of the overall design and narrative.
“I like to think of myself as working in collaboration with materials, processes and phenomena and that the final physical outcome is a product of mutual consent.”
About Tom Price
A London native, Price attended several renowned schools including the Royal College of Art. That background in Fine Art informs his approach to design, which is typically very sculptural in both appearance and concept. The vast majority of Tom Price’s furniture and collections are anything but conventional. Represented in collections around the world, recently two of Price’s pieces were acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco.
Included in this exhibition will be Price’s coveted Meltdown Chairs—a series of unique furniture pieces made by melting a seat shape into a sculpted assembly of commonplace plastic products using a specially designed heated former. Original to this exhibit is an homage to DC. When he visited last spring, Price fell in love with the area’s iconic cherry trees. Inspired by them, he has constructed a series of sweeping sculptures out of plastic tubing, referencing the shapes of the trees and their blossoms. They will combine to create a unique immersive and site-specific installation, taking over an entire room of the gallery.
Price’s public commissions include a large-scale sculpture for a new square in the centre of Gloucester (UK) and a sculptural installation for a restored Victorian grotto at the foot of the Royal Terrace Gardens, in Torquay (UK). As an enduring tribute, Price’s talent and techniques are referenced in many respected design books including Desire by Elizabeth Honerla; Contemporary Furniture by Martin Wellner and Andrea Mehlhose; New Talents –The State of the Arts by Hans Maier-Aichen and Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary by the Museum of Arts and Design, New York.
