Side Gallery

Floor lamp
From the series "The Metamorphosis"
Manufactured by Tadeas Podracky
Prague, 2020
Mixed media, plastic, textile, wood, car lights, metal, foam

Measurements
230 cm x 100 cm x 120 cm
90,55 in x 39,37 in x 47,24 in

Concept
The Metamorphosis collection seeks to enhance the emotional bond to our surrounding environment. During the Coronavirus outbreak Podracký returned to Prague his home town and spent a couple of months in a quarantine in his studio there. Access to materials was minimal but he turned this handicap into a research opportunity and started to work only with material found around the studio or that were easy to access, such as wood, textiles, trash such as old car parts, old ceramic pieces or broken glass sheets. Tadeáš realized that these materials had a certain authenticity and so began reevaluating the way he approached the materiality, challenging himself to dis-acknowledge deeply rooted principles of formal design, interrupting established practices of conventional construction methods. The designer was seeking the authenticity of expression and changed his design methodology based on the intuitive use of materials and emotional decisions regarding structure, shape and the construction process. The aim was to let the object grow through his hands by gluing and combining different elements, reminiscent of the process of a bird weaving its nest. This approach allowed him complete freedom, resulting in an unpredictable outcome depending only on authentic personal expression.

To reveal the materials' character, his methodology "Creating through Destroying" consequently came to light. His understanding of destruction is defined as an infinite loop, destruction and creation a single entity that continually renews itself. Working with glass for over ten years taught Podracký that destruction has become a craft by repetitive usage with clearly defined limits. But sometimes, when the limits are accidentally exceeded, it leads to a better understanding of the material which can even improve the technique. He has researched this point of uncontrolled destroying in order to discover the new perspectives of materiality. In the Metamorphosis of Gerrit Rietveld's iconic chair he worked with handicraft techniques that cannot be entirely under control such as the pouring of colors and plastics, cutting and grinding with a chain saw or another tools, using the offcuts and sawdust as building material. The goal was to reach the unpredictability; not designing the object's appearance at first or working with sketches, instead the process was controlled by quick decisions and a reactions to the material and object itself. It could be read as an iconoclasm or a critique on modernism, which is undoubtedly partially true, but the aim was to create a dialog between Podracký as a designer himself and the modernist icon.