Inside Seongil Choi’s experiments with supplies and type

Seongil Choi graduated from The Royal Faculty of Arts earlier than organising his apply Studio Il Works, in his native Korea. Now primarily based in Seoul, he works on furnishings and objects with an experimental strategy and a selected concentrate on manufacturing strategies and supplies. His oeuvre is eclectic, spanning from lighting objects that play with color and motion, to furnishings made from steel mesh, bent like paper and coated with vibrant and glossy polyurethane rubber.

Seongil Choi: a design in fixed experimentation

‘RCA gave me a brand new perspective on what could possibly be design,’ he says of his time in London, finding out with the likes of Max Lamb and Harry Richardson. ‘At the moment designers inventing new methods of constructing, designing instruments and materials was a comparatively new strategy to me particularly coming from a metropolis the place industrial design largely meant designing for an enormous firm. Simply seeing this concept could possibly be a design apply by itself  was a watch opening expertise and gave me the braveness that I is also engaged on experimental making.’

Amongst Choi’s most related tasks thus far has been his MA commencement undertaking, ‘Scorching Wire Extensions’, a collaboration with Fabio Hendry exploring different processes for furnishings making. ‘The approach reuses waste nylon powder from SLS 3D printing, a cloth at present not recycled,’ explains Choi. ‘The method begins by constructing a form from skinny nichrome wire that matches throughout the dimensions of a cuboid container. The wire is positioned contained in the field, stuffed with a mix of pure silica sand and waste nylon powder. 

‘Sand acts each as a filler materials, stopping the nylon powder from dripping off the wire, and likewise as a warmth conductor. A battery sends an electrical present via the resistant steel, melting the encompassing nylon. The method turns the transient right into a strong, seamlessly binding the fabric to search out its personal natural, bone-like ultimate construction.’

Later works embody the Hardened Mesh sequence, by which he created shapes out of wire after which coated them in a number of layers of polyurethane rubber. ‘Working with wire. It’s as straightforward as working with paper, but in addition that a lot fragile,’ he explains. He utilized this course of to furnishings in addition to smaller objects and vessels. 

Choi’s Block Stool is amongst his most mature furnishings works: a geometrical composition of six metal blocks balancing onto one another, it seems like an intuitively constructed object. A particular version of the stool was a part of the Props assortment for Hem X, the Swedish model’s experimental department, in a particular polished restricted version.

‘I feel it’s my basic curiosity of issues encourage me,’ he says. ‘I get excited typically simply enthusiastic about new materials combos, seeing strategies I’ve not identified earlier than and imagining new methods of utilizing it. One factor I really like about dwelling in Seoul is that there are nonetheless lots of areas the place issues are made in the midst of town. I actually take pleasure in strolling round theses alleys and looking on what’s is there and the way issues are made. This environment actually evokes me, and typically straight leads me to a brand new undertaking thought.’

Choi is at present beginning a PHD at Seoul Nationwide College, the place he plans to broaden his data of the fabric panorama, and discover experimental functions in manufacturing and design. ‘I’m now exploring recycled materials from industrial waste and the way this might substitute typical supplies,’ he say.