‘OMG-GMO’ is Bitossi's latest creative collaboration, a series by Robert Stadler curated by Carwan Gallery's Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte featuring realistic fruit and vegetable shapes turned into furniture and lighting. Presented during Milan Design Week 2023, the collection is a whimsical interpretation of functional furniture demonstrating Bitossi's mastery of material, shape and colour.
‘OMG-GMO’ by Robert Stadler and Bitossi
‘Vita Mix’ chandelier
The premise of the collection is simple: in his most playful piece of work in a decade-long career, Stadler recreated realistic shapes of fruit and vegetables, which were combined into suggestive, functional furniture designs.
A pair of bananas become the hangers of a valet stand, while a photorealistic slice of watermelon is the seat on a stool. A trio of carrots joined at the top practically double as a table lamp, while some celery leans on the wall, projecting light onto the surface from its stalk. There are bent zucchini (supporting the wooden shelves of a bookcase), aubergines (the legs of a Gae Aulenti-inspired glass-topped coffee table), a sliced avocado (the base of a cucumber floor lamp) and walnuts (playfully dotted throughout the collection). An impressive chandelier, meanwhile, combines several of these motifs into a colourful, fruity extravaganza.
‘Juicy Josef’ stool
Today's shop-displayed vegetables look perfect and often have little resemblance to their species’ natural forms, something that Stadler has been observing and commenting on through his work: 'Engineering has become even more extreme, incorporating genetic modification and sophisticated cultivation techniques that give fruit and vegetables of almost artificial perfection and symmetry.'
‘Mute Mix’ valet stand
According to a note from the gallery, the collection 'offers a witty comment on the relationship between humans and their environment, as seen through the genetic manipulation of fruit and vegetables'. Stadler's fruit and vegetables are perfect and spotless, a way for the designer to comment on themes of agricultural domestication, selective breeding and bioengineering.
bitossiceramiche.it
robertstadler.net
carwangallery.com
‘Tip Toe’ table lamp
The base of the ‘Size Matters’ floor lamp
‘Gay Gae’ table
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