Enignum Shelf XIII

source: artsynet

Irish designer Joseph Walsh makes ethereal items of furniture from large blocks of wood. The resulting objects, while functional, recall a range of formal references from Isamu Noguchi’s abstract sculptures, to Umberto Boccioni’s futurist paintings, to Alexander Calder’s constructivist mobiles. What Walsh and his artist-designer predecessors share is an interest in motion, speed, and biomorphic forms. Walsh has created a signature aesthetic by stripping wood into thin sheets and reconstituting them as sinuous, splayed forms that resemble vines, seashells, stones, skeletons, and other natural elements. In his recent “Enignum” series, Walsh fuses the Latin words “enigma” (mystery) and “lignum” (wood) as inspiration for beds, tables, and shelves that have a mysterious, enchanted quality.
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source: josephwalshstudio

In the Enignum series of work, I have stripped wood into thin layers, manipulating and reconstructing them into free form compositions. I then shape through these layers to reveal not only the honesty of the structure but the sculpted form which is a unique collaboration of man and material. The title derives from the Latin words Enigma (‘mystery’) and Lignum (‘wood’), for me they sum up the series: the mystery of the composition lies in the material.
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source: toddmerrillstudio

Joseph Walsh (born in 1979) founded his studio and workshop in 1999 in Co. Cork, Ireland. He is a self-taught designer maker, realising one of a kind and limited edition pieces. Walsh’s creative approach reflects his appreciation of nature and also his desire to engage the user with visual and tactile forms.

The great understanding and sympathetic use of the material, the intimate relationship between the process of finding forms and creating structures and the continuity and resolve from the concept stage to the making process define his studio and work today. Walsh’s workshop – employing an international team, engineering, resolving and crafting the work – continues to develop skills and to challenge existing practice in achieving the ambitious pieces realised, while employing wood in new and innovative ways.