In GEENEN + HOON The Aram Gallery delves into one such remarkable episode, and exemplifies it with the work of Bram Geenen and Il Hoon Roh. Both designers work experimentally in their distinctive material choice and, its application. However the similarities in their aesthetics are uncanny.

 

Looking to the architecture of Antonio Gaudi and Frei Otto, both Geenen + Hoon developed unique methods to form perfect arches for their furniture’s legs. Geenen analyses chains hung from above at three fixed points of a triangle - the resulting arch is defined by gravity. Hoon however works cautiously with a sheet of fabric stretched atop a table frame tightening and stitching the draped fabric until perfect arches emerge between each leg, defined by the capabilities of the material. At this perfectly balanced stage Hoon laminates the fabric in GRP (Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastic) whilst Geenen uses his arches as the basis for sketches and cardboard prototypes, resulting in a 3D printed stool. This example is just one of many which typifies how Geenen + Hoon’s practices overlap.

 

Interested in how designers think and work, The Aram Gallery is eager to investigate the steps which have led these two to arrive at similar visual conclusions. The exhibition presents their initial sketches, scale prototypes, full size prototypes and finished pieces so that aesthetic similarities and practical differences, where they exist, are easily identifiable.

 

In statements written by Geenen + Hoon we learnt of the underlying problems they are  wrestling with, and are free to make our own judgments on the conclusions they have arrived at thus far. We are fascinated by how interestingly their paths have intersected, and of course we are equally excited to see where they go next.

 

Photographer Shira Klasmer