Objects to bridge past and present.
project
National Gallery Furniture
client
National Gallery Singapore
Team
Ong Ker-Shing, Joshua Comaroff, Eugene Kosgoron, Germain Goh
The directors of Singapore’s new National Gallery reached out to us with an interesting concept. They were in possession of a collection of replica furniture, made in the 1950s, which mimicked the original furnishings of City Hall and Supreme Court. While these had no authentic historical value, there were interesting as a record of the design language of the old buildings.
The Gallery tasked us with “up-cycling” these replicas; we were free to use them however we liked. Our concept was to divide the old pieces, and use their elements in combination with modern materials and geometries. To us, this represented the unique situation of the gallery: an old building starting a new life as a modern, contemporary institution. We added bent, CNC-cut metal screens in a brass finish, as well as Corian and other solid-surfaces, to complement the antique elements and frame them in new ways.
All images by Jansen Teo