Side 1 Furniture unit with drawer - / Shiro Kuramata, 1970 - L 63 x H 170 cm by Cappellini White/Black

Treat yourself to an ORIGINAL iconic piece by Cappellini. An original will never lose its value. It will stay with you for your whole life, and even longer, perfect for passing on to the next generation. A key figure in post-modern Japanese design, Shiro Kuramata (1934 – 1991) has made a huge impact on 20th-Century design with his extraordinary pieces. A lover of poetic minimalism, the designer is known for having constantly tried throughout his career to shake off the shackles of gravity” : Nobody before him has pushed the limits of materiality so far. Shiro Kuramata's style is imbued with humour and poetry, combined in the quest of a lightweight and minimalist style. His work on light, transparency and immateriality, as well as his bold and eccentric choices of material, have made a precursor out of Kuramata. Both playful and poetic, "Side 1" is part of the drawer unit series "Progetti Compiuti", designed by Shiro Kuramata in 1970. A nod to the stacked sculptures of American artist Donald Judd (1928 - 1994), this chest of drawers is all undulating curves that seem to dance! Playing on the notion of balance, this stack of drawers appears almost to be precarious, as if it could give in to gravity at any point. The repetition of one, singular pattern creates the rhythm of this piece, and the drawers have steel button knobs, creating a sense of movement with a dotted line. The sleek style of this ash tree piece is enhanced by a simple, black and white design. The curve creates a play of perspective and an optical illusion. Effectively, whilst each of the drawers are identically sized, the eye tends to register them as being differently sized. This false impression creates a fluid overall effect, adding to the sensation of a living piece. In a modern spirit, each drawer has a steel button knob which marks the movement of the curve with a dotted line. Never losing functionality from view, the chest of drawers is mounted on four wheels, so that it can easily be moved around the interior. The shape is the star of the show, reduced to a simple volume in which time and space are, for lack of better words, thrown out of the window. The piece has a minimalist value, playing on stripping back all expressive inspirations. The piece is designed as a whole, where the eye doesn't linger on superfluous details, as the chest of drawers doesn't have any. The eye travels over this piece from top to bottom and then bottom to top, as the composition of the drawers is enough to create a hypnotic rhythm. Shiro Kuramata loved to breathe an aura of strangeness into familiar furniture, using his streamlined and aesthetic vocabulary. With humour and poetry, he gave his pieces a plastic lightness, tipping its hat to minimalism. Shiro Kuramata's creations are now exhibited in the most prestigious museums around the world, such as the MoMA in New York, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Vitra Design Museum in Basel, and the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto. Shiro Kuramata's production method essentially consists of limited and rare series which achieve incredibly high prices at auction.