SR_A X FRIEDMAN BENDA
Propelled by a partnership between the New York art gallery Friedman Benda and his very own design-led venture SR_A, Brit multidisciplinary creative director and A-COLD-WALL* fashion designer Samuel Ross is currently exhibiting a modernist sculpture collection at Design Miami.
Materialising Ross’ architecture-as-art approach, the solo-booth installation displays three distinct yet intersecting series: SIGNAL, RUPTURE and AMORPHOUS STRAND. In this effort, the sculptural furniture pieces provide a window into the black experience — one that, although carried with pride and necessity, undeniably has shades of Eurocentric influences.
One piece is made out of man-made OBS wood boards that has been perforated with holes at the chair’s backrest. The same chair was replicated in a brutalist aesthetic, painted in black with milled steel edges throughout. Two very different types of material with different backgrounds and moods — white marble and safety-orange powder-coated steel — are thrown in the mix, too.
The three series see Ross dive into the diaspora experience through various modern structures that collide with West African heritage, giving the designer the space to explore the notion of cultural survival /
