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Bert Jan Pot armchair
Private seller:RotterdamSOLD for €230,-
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Private seller: Rotterdam
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Bertjan Pot
Nieuwleusen 1975
Text: Museum Boijmans
Bertjan Pot practices his profession as a contemporary inventor rather than as a classical designer. His products arise from a fascination for a specific material or processing technique. He is impressed by the possibilities it offers and playfully looks for an underlying code. He is looking for a logic in production that is so clear and smart that all other design requirements are dwarfed.
According to Pot, optimal use of materials and technology reduces an object to its essence and gives room for poetic logic. When Pot reaches this moment in the design process, he knows that the design has been successful. Since 1999, he has been consistently building a colorful universe full of contemporary innovations.
Pot studied at the Design Academy in Eindhoven in the 1990s and completed his final exams with the design of the Knitted Lamp (1998). This lamp is made using fiberglass, epoxy resin and balloons. In a process he developed himself, he pulls a knitted fiberglass fabric soaked in epoxy over a balloon and allows the shape to harden into an autonomous object. With the objects, which have a different shape each time, he made a series of hanging and standing lamps. Although these shapes are expressive and have a special aesthetic, the constructive effect of the fiberglass does not appear to be optimal. If glass fibers are not properly aligned, which is the case in knitted fabric, the qualities of the material are insufficiently achieved.
He therefore uses the residual material from the graduation project to develop another lamp. One that is simpler. Pot now twists the fiberglass wires directly over the balloon and after the epoxy has hardened, a new lamp is created, the Random Light. This lamp was noticed by designer Marcel Wanders who founded the interior label Moooi in 2001 and wanted to include the lamp in this collection. After a period of three years in which Moooi perfected the production process for machine production, the lamp was finally incorporated and became a commercial success.
The idea of wrapping a shape randomly with carbon fiber threads, creating a black copy in lines, proves to be a particularly fruitful technique for chairs. In 2003 Pot created the Random Chair. Black wires are pulled over a Styrofoam mold to form a super light and very strong construction. The Carbon Copy (2003) and the Carbon Chair (2004) subsequently emerged as variations on the famous dining room chair by Charles and Ray Eames.
Although Pot focuses on the ultimate fusion of function and material, his work is not purely about functionality. He says he is not very good with practical things such as appliances with plugs, and prefers to focus on beautiful things. He enjoys working with companies and production workshops.
ConditionExcellentColorsBlackMaterialSustainable materialsNumber of items1First ownerYesHeight73 cmWidth43 cmDepth43 cmSeat height37 cm