“TECTONICS” Exhibition Text

Exhibition text for SAW design show at NOMIA in Brooklyn

NOMIA — 4.4.24

It’s in convergence that we find insight: ideas, material epiphanies — sums greater than their parts that illuminate what we’ve only seen the outlines of. This kind of joinery, whether physical or conceptual, creates new opportunities for understanding the work we produce.

“Tectonics”, the first solo exhibition by designer and architect Drew Seskunas, explores the material representation of joinery through a collection of sculptural domestic furniture created for indoor and outdoor use alike. Here, joinery manifests itself in the cornered meetings of flat planes, the contrast between disparate materials, action posed against stasis, and, perhaps most importantly, synthesis of ideas. 

In deceptively straightforward pieces that reveal fine detail upon closer inspection, “Tectonics” presents an exploration of relationships themselves: how the meeting of multiples can lead to something altogether more complex and delightfully mystical in its own right. 

At the core is the power of relationship: the collection incorporates designs born from Seskunas’ ongoing creative collaboration with partner Yara Flinn, whose own ideas have found their way into many of the collection’s details. “Tectonics” is a fully realized vignette born from seeds sown in conversation with Flinn and others — talks that have fledged into a realized portrait of his vision for design.   

In the exhibition, metal facets, punctured surfaces, and contrasting forms come together to create a subtly anachronous exploration of design, informed by a deep knowledge and wonder in history combined with a proposition for the future. 

Visible hardware is presented directly: small constellations of exposed rivets or paper-like perforations along the edges of folded metal. Sconces curved from a single piece of steel, cut out to reveal circular windows of light, dangle their power sources revealed without pretense. 

Seskunas’ work is the history of materiality and people: riveted metal forms evoke early supersonic aircraft, while Seskunas’ ever-present awareness of use and function nods to the humanist modernism of Luigi Snozzi, Mario Botta or Aurelio Galfetti.

Ultimately, the pieces presented in “Tectonics” are meant for humans. Their sharp lines and dense metals bely an inherent ergonomics and durability that speaks to their destiny as pieces to be loved. Functioning both indoors and out, the collection invites joinery — of materials, ideas, and people to one other.