London-based Italian designer Martino Gamper’s 100 Chairs in 100 Days project makes it to Wellington, complete with a new, locally made chair
Martino Gamper’s 100 Chairs in 100 Days
There’s a simple genius to Martino Gamper’s 100 Chairs in 100 Days: in each place the exhibition visits, he makes a new chair from found objects – the process of which is shown in these photos taken in Auckland recently. “The result changes according to what I find, where I work and how I feel on that day,” says Gamper.
Why did you start rescuing chairs?
I saw potential in the post-consumer reminiscence.
What makes a good chair?
A combination of shape/form, elegance, comfort, material, context, history and the relationship with the user.
How difficult is it to make a chair in a day, and what does that pressure do to the process?
Some days it’s easy, some days it’s difficult. It’s quite difficult when you think too much about the result.
Tells us about the chair you made in Auckland and the process you went through to make it.
My friends in Auckland, Katie Lockhart and Darryl Ward, helped me source broken chairs from their friends and loaned me their outdoor workshop with a fantastic selection of tools. I usually round up the chairs and look at them for a while, then I start taking them apart. This is a very important step as I have to sacrifice them in order to make something new. I then start sketching in 3D with the chair parts – from there it’s all about creating character, structure and function. At the end I start to think about the finishing and surface.
Do you have a favourite?
I have many favourites, but when I reunite with them in the exhibition I start appreciating new faces.
How do you decide which one to leave out?
The 100th (the ‘Flying’ chair) that was first shown in London wasn’t part of the book, 100 Chairs in 100 Days and Its 100 Ways, as it wasn’t made at the time of printing, so it had to stay home.
Martino Gamper: 100 Chairs in 100 Days runs from 8 April to 13 August.
Photography by: Toaki Okano
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