 So often artists and designers
look to the works of other
cultures and other times, find that they resonate with their
own perspective, and carry those
newly excavated ideas forward.
When the London cabinetmaker
Thomas Chippendale sat down to
publish his book in 1754 on designs for
chairs, tables and sofas, he turned to
what he knew of as Chinese furniture
and architecture for inspiration. Two
hundred years later, many Scandinavian
chair designers, awed by earlier, more
restrained styles of Chinese furniture
and finding a resonance with modern
aesthetics, began producing Chineseinspired
furniture. The interest in Chinese culture as a source of inspiration in
art and design has continued among
European and American artists and
makers until modern times.
In June 2005, 22 contemporary studio
furnituremakers from the United States
and Canada, were invited to a three-day
workshop at the Peabody Essex Museum,
where they were joined by several Chinese
peers, to explore stellar examples of
historic Chinese furniture in depth.
They studied over 40 pieces of Ming
(1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911)
period furniture, made from a wide
variety of materials and in a range of
styles and types. Wooden chairs, stone
stools, lacquer tables, a rootwood
screen. They opened drawers, turned
tables upside down and disassembled
and re-assembled reproduction chairs.
 They also watched a Chinese hardwood
furnituremaker and a bamboo chair-maker
display their techniques, producing, with
hand tools only, and no nails or glue,
solid traditional Chinese seats.
One of the furnituremakers, Brian Newell,
became so enthralled with Chinese culture
after the workshop that he visited the
country, and the Chinese furnituremakers,
three times before completing his
Cicada cabinet. Below is one of Brian’s
thoughts as the work developed.
7/26/05 “I myself am cautiously stalking
various ideas, such as a pair of little
cabinets and a complete scholar`s setup.
While I have yet to go in for the
kill on design (pardon my small-town
metaphors), I have begun collecting
wood. I already possessed a good
deal of hongmu [a Chinese wood similar to mahogany] as well as jichimu
[another tropical hardwood literally
translated as “chicken wing” wood], 9
beautiful logs of boxwood, and two little
half-log fragments of zitan [the most
precious and hardest of Chinese woods.]”
For Brian, and for all the makers who
participated in this project, the inspiration
for his work percolated out of encounters with new woods, new people, new visual
patterns, and new techniques. Certainly,
one day, future artists and makers may
turn to these works for inspiration.
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