wow what an incredible privilege – thank you , we have followed
some of the track of the VNL tables viral journey. And I haven’t laughed
so hard in my life. some of those comments where pure mint. Man I
loved the fact that the table could get so shredded humorously. It made
the bitter pill of the obvious so much sweeter. our work is designed to
provoke response. Love or hate it – not much in between. thank you
for taking the time to get hold of us. Wildetecture started
out as a conceptual design studio first and foremost and we are now working our
wilder designs through a process of practical refinement. A creative
design process starting from the outer reaches of imagination,
(wildemagine) working back to practicality of form. We like
to call it the outer dream backwards , point of creative departure.
Because once the practical mind gets hold of a creative idea – its pretty much
clipped down to a utilitarian end product. We want all the intensity, all
the taste all the aesthetic in the very first sketch, without
fussing about usability and practicality. BTW Your write up was
absolutely perfect . ta
The 3 questions.
1. Where did the idea
for a viking conference table come from?
1) Sculpture and art concentrate on our visual senses mostly – they
occupy space and in the most part its human imaginative effort
captured. once an art piece is finished we all enjoy, admire
the skeletal remains of human efforts and thought. For wildetecture The
Viking norse longboat table is an experiment in several levels of what
art represents to us. Where art and sculpture
is worked into something every day. One cannot easily become
part of a painting once it has been finished or become part of a sculpture once
it has been bronzed or carved. Especially if the original artist is dead.
However a sculptured table is only the first half of the artistic
experience or really a fraction of the artistic possibilities. The second
half is the communicative voyage , the interaction through time and place,
when a person puts themselves into the art piece itself. A table is
one of the best mediums to experiment with this concept, as it adds not
only human interaction into the equation. But the potential of incredible
food , wine and conversation, poetry and will hopefully bring
out the artistic troubadour in all the participants at the table.
Each unique interaction whilst sitting at the table is
an art piece in itself, an uncontrollable explosion , all working towards
a voyage of communicative artistic discovery. Much like the voyages into
the unknown of the long ship oarsman. Because human conversation is art and
needs to be celebrated around a space that encourages us to talk. Every
conversation is creativity, a plethora of ideas, adding the unique depth
to every interaction, the possibilities of this happening
around a table like the VNLT are exponential. The VNLT’s
express purpose of design is to encourage such artistic dialogue.
This Will then be the second phase of this artistic piece.
2. Are there any plans to
make this table a reality?
2)
We have been commissioned to make up a VNLT table for a shipping
companies boardroom in Scotland , they asked for a tamer version of the
original. Ie more comfortable and more corporate. Which we have
done. We are in the process of finishing the table off. We have also made
up a smaller 3 seat version of the VNLT which sits up against a wall,
With a mirror. The first sketch was finished 2 months ago and we
are refining the smaller version for a wider audience to participate with.
More cost effective than the big VNLT. We are doing r and d to create
this piece – talking to shipwrights and yacht builders to refine the design.
(attached is a prototype sketch of the 3 seat VNLT)
3. What sort of elements of
Norse art or history did you draw on when creating your table?
3)
My brother lives in Norway and when visiting him he took us to
the Viking museums and the once buried long ships. When I Stood in
front of these age old art pieces. I was immediately struck by the possible
stories that these ships could tell. Those tales of exploration would be
unbelievable, apart from the Viking obvious 3 – rpp.
Its also about brave men – taming the fearful unknown.
Coming from Africa we are used to experiencing dangerous wild animals
from the safe side of a fence or a car. One gets a
similar sense of danger , a sense of primal fear when Standing in front
of a Viking long ship, the safe side for me was time. I felt the same
mesmerizing impact of fear that I’m sure many people felt in the 10th
century, when these vessels suddenly appeared off shore. The similar fear
I get when watching a lion hunting its prey in the wild. And as artists
are inspired to sculpt or paint leopard and lion. I felt I needed to
express this synaptic thought into something tangible –my own interpretation of
what I was experiencing.
When looking at the ribs of a
fish or of a boat, there is a perfect harmony of pattern that intrigues.
So to create the chairs as the ribs and the table as the conduit of this same
strong line, was very important to this art piece. Which renders
the chairs uncomfortable - yes – but that doesn’t concern me in the first
sketch. When we sit at tables the chairs and the table are rarely
harmonious – they are 2 separate design entities always. I wanted this sketch
to include both as one and to incorporate the guest into the artistic
sculpture as well. I love the fact that Norse art is so intricate and
even delicate – long winter months allowed the artists to really create
intricately patterned sculpture and furniture. To my mind in
Africa we tend to be much more broad brush stroke. Maybe because we have
abundant sun and our horizons stretch further for longer. So this table is a
fusion of the 2 influences of wild north culture with wild south fauna and
flora.
The wildetects run several sites – www.wildetecture.com is the principle –
we have 2 twitter sites - https://twitter.com/wildetect
and https://twitter.com/Wildetecture
if people google image wildetecture – it will give an idea of
our other imaginative excursions into the creative synaptic unknown.
We design architecture , furniture art and sculpt – our
wildetect concepts are African fauvistic in nature – and we derive influence
from all aspects of life and our African experience interpretation of it.
Thanks again for the time and the email – hope the above makes
sense, im supposed to be finishing off a house plan for construction
– the surveyor is on site tomorrow and I’ve had 8 phone calls whilst
writing this. Pressure – hopefully the house gets sited in the right place and
hopefully this makes sense.
Kind regards
Quinton j Damstra – wildetect 3 of 3
Dean Hoffman wildetect 2 of 2
Warren Hoffman wildetect 1 of 2
