NoMATERIA 2020 | Balance

(in homage to Martín John Gornés)
“The first lines made for this design were those of the hind leg. As soon as I finished
closing the line, I felt the desire to write something and the only thing that occurred to
me to say was “in castration you will find the male.” I think it is ironic. Over time I realize
that it is a masculine figure, as if it were a bull’s horn, but that within its strength it cannot
support itself, which also expresses weakness. The work of the rod travels freely through
the space to give it support, and that makes us feel a kind of dance between balance in
tension or dynamic balance. A constant search for the universe.
From the figure of the leg, I structured the system of relationships that governs the piece:
two laminar bodies articulated by welding with a vector structure of bars that hold two
boards. I think the result is frontal and aggressive, but at the same time delicate and
naive. I had never made a chair, but I wanted the first one not to be one for rest but for
work and that’s why I looked for a firm position. I think that in Venezuela it is not the time
to loosen but to write our history better.
As an architect, I have observed that construction workers often make all kinds of makeshift
furniture on site, from workbench to barbecue pits. The fluted rib is a nod in my work
with the cunning of these men. In the sawmills there are always cuttings that did not
enter the format. Instead of being turned into sawdust, I trade them cheaply, combine
them, and then glue them together to produce a new piece. The seat and back boards
have carob, saman, pine and a purpleheart in the center that gives it the uniqueness
of purple. It is difficult to find rubbers for the design, so I modeled the joints between
materials in SketchUp, and printed them with a plastic filament on an Ender 5 from the
Chinese manufacturer Creality.
Martina was made on the ridges that once belonged to the Mariche Indians, between
Vista Hermosa and La Dolorita, where the Creole heirs of the Italians and the Spanish
still live. The workshops are, if anything, working today at 30% of their capacity, but if
you search well, you will meet masters disguised as assistants.”