Mutation Series by Maarten de Ceulaer: Aesthetic and Unique Furniture

Mutation Series by Maarten de Ceulaer pieces in this series look like they weren’t made by hands, but have grown to their present form organically. Each piece in the Mutation series is made from foam spheres, cut so they fit together, attached to a frame and coated in rubber or flocked. They might be the result of a mutation in cells, or the result of a chemical or nuclear reaction. Perhaps it’s a virus or bacteria that have grown dramatically out of scale. The project can be seen as an experimental review of classic furniture upholstery. Belgium-based designer Maarten de Ceulaer presents his ‘mutation series’ at this year’s Milan design week 2012. He makes each design completely different and unique. The prototypes range in size from small ottomans and stools to large sofas and over-sized chairs.

The pieces are created by carefully composing patterns with cut-offs of foam sphere’s of various sizes, and applying them onto a structure. Mutation Series by Maarten de Ceulaer is hardly impossible to ever recreate such a specific pattern, so every piece is completely unique, even when starting from the same basic structure. The pieces resemble the organic transformation of cells that have grown out of scale due to a virus or nuclear reaction. Handcrafted from foam volumes covered with a rubber or velvety finish, each piece of the series is totally unique. The Mutation pieces make you look at furniture in a different way. Maybe one day we would be able to grow a piece of furniture like we breed or clone an animal, and manipulate its shape like a bonsai tree. The project can also be seen as a new way to upholster classic pieces but in a sculptural way. Covered in a durable velvet-like finish, each piece is completely unique and nearly impossible to replicate. I’ll admit that I too am responsible from wringing the term of its meaning as a shorthand antonym for synthetic, contrived or otherwise formalist aesthetics of high modernism

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