Recycling and upcycling are in themselves never enough, are in themselves never an argument, much as blacksmithing, carpentry or 3D printing aren't arguments, aren't enough, in themselves; rather are components of a processes of creating, are means to an end. And it's always about how you employ that means, and the objects that result. Nor are recycling and upcycling inherently positive: over the years we've seem some truly distressing recycling and upcycling, objects the world don't need and that make a mockery of recycling and upcycling, much as we've seen some truly distressing, and mocking, blacksmithing, carpentry and 3D printing.
A state of affairs that adds a tangible sense of suspense to visiting any exhibition of recycled and/or upcycled furniture.
Such as the showcase Berlin Re:furnished staged at Backhaus Projects during Berlin Design Week, BDW, 2025, a solo exhibition, and pop-up showroom, of and for works by New Zealand born, Melbourne and Berlin based, furniture designer Angharad Summers, a creative who favours employing the waste and discarded materials of contemporary consumer society as the basis for her own works. Arguably a component of her demand for more eco and less ego in design. Which we happily sign up to, for all the need to lose the ego. In design and in society. It is the biggest problem of 21st century.
And a presentation of works by Angharad Summers that was anything but distressing. And definitely didn't mock.
Not that we're saying we were taken by everything on show, we weren't, some works were a little too obvious for our sensibilities, we're a little too safe, didn't explore the borders and the possibilities of the material and the processes as they could, we'd argue as they should. However, as a presentation, as a body of work, Berlin Re:furnished tended, certainly for us, to imply a creative who is very attentive, is very aware of not only what they are doing but why, approaches design as more then the object, where the object is part of a wider whole, and where one can read a clarity of thought echoed in a clarity of action.
And who thereby also realises some very engaging objects.
In particular we thoroughly enjoyed the side table Edge, a work whose staccatoed single leg is constructed from lengths of a variety of woods atop of which sits a table top that speaks of the trees the woods once were; you can almost see the leg growing from the top, but not in an obvious way, rather with a nice degree of separation between nature and art. A highly graphic, decorative without being ornamentive, work, that is not only a nice take on, arguably extension of, the classical orders of columns, adding a Berlin order to the Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Tuscan, but also a work that exists, certainly in our viewing of it, at a curious, but not unappealing height. A height reminiscent of the telephone tables of old, when telephones were things that stood static in hallways and you couldn't watch films on them, or terrorise your fellow humans by shouting into them in public spaces... a height of table that although it has lost its purpose in contemporary society, as represented by Edge, very much demands that it be allowed to find a new role in contemporary society.
And also greatly enjoyed the lounge chair Henry, an upholstered chair whose upholstery was created by one Afra, and whose frame Angharad crafted from a batch of solid oak that used to a three metre long dining table, which may or may not make Henry a dining lounge chair, arguably a thing as novel as the Berlin order.
A stubbornly quadratic chair, but not impolitely so, certainly not dogmatically so, rather quadratic because that's what it's nature is and it's very happy in its quadraticness, a reminder that we should all be comfortably unapologetic in our quadraticness; and a work that Angharad has realised in unfamiliar dimensions and proportions, dimensions and proportions for all they are unfamiliar, at times confuse, discombobulate even, enable an object whose spacious seat and almost more implied than present backrest and legs bequeath it an easy visual that you unquestionably accept as natural, rational, correct, appealing. And that very much invites you sit. Which we forgot to, don't ask how, but we did, and thus can't comment on the seating comfort and security, but see no reason to doubt either.
We also, inexplicably, forgot to photograph Angharad's Fish Stool a work in recycled plastic that underscores that amongst all the wood on show in Backhaus Projects Angharad Summers demand for Re:furnishing Berlin isn't limited to wood. There is a lot of waste out there we needs must find meaningful uses for. While simultaneously reining in our egos to stop us generating ever more.
Angharad Summers - Berlin Re:furnished can be viewed at Backhaus Projects, Weserstraße 168, 12045 Berlin until Sunday May 18th.
More information on Angharad Summers can be found at www.angharadsummers.com
Further details on Berlin Design Week can be found at https://berlindesignweek.com
