May 15, 2020

Text: Rebecca Thienes

TRNK Paves a Path for Future Virtual Exhibitions

Collection 01 Table 06 by Disciplina Studio, Fragment by FICT Studio, Proportions of Stone by Sisan Lee, Arc by TRNK, and Proportions of Stone by Sisan Lee. Photography by Form & Rausch, courtesy of TRNK. 

TRNK, the NYC-based design studio and retailer, opened a virtual group exhibition May 13 dubbed REND. Featuring the work of three designers plus their own in-house TRNK collection, the resulting pieces share common materiality: all are crafted in cold, hard metal mixed with rough-and-ready stone, a study in contrasts.

Proportions of Stone. Photography by Form & Rausch, courtesy of TRNK. 

The newly-commissioned, limited-edition designs include gravity-defying Proportions of Stone chair, tables, and shelves by South Korea-based designer Sisan Lee (@leesisan) made by pairing natural, unmanipulated stones with manufactured steel plates.

Fragment stool and chair. Photography by Form & Rausch, courtesy of TRNK. 

Seoul-based FICT Studio (an acronym for From Craft To Industry; @fictstudio) offers the Fragment stool and chairs, a creative reuse of marble cast-offs rescued from the waste stream and combined with resin to form the planes of each perch.

Collection 01 tables; Collection 03 wall mirrors, table and screen. Photography by Form & Rausch, courtesy of TRNK. 

Steel anchors Collection 03 by Mexico City-based Disciplina Studio (@disciplinastudio), the resulting screen and mirrors utilizing a nickel-rust plating to create a raw and imperfect appearance. The designer’s Collection 01 tables feature discarded marbles for another take on elevated reuse.

TRNK’s Arc sofa and Angle armchair with Collection 01 tables and Collection 03 wall mirrors by Disciplina Studio. Photography by Form & Rausch, courtesy of TRNK. 

The TRNK brand’s own Arc series by founder Tariq Dixon includes an elegant sofa atop tubular legs and the Angle armchair set on a cross base of chrome-plated steel, both upholstered in ultra-durable performance velvet in fetching hues like Bark and Everglade.

Equally of interest is the manner in which the works are presented. In uncertain times when in-person viewings remain verboten, the studio-made objects and furnishings appear in a virtual environment created in collaboration with Berlin-based Hannes Lippert of Form & Rausch (@formundrausch). Lippert’s studio is known for interior visualizations and animations for the likes of fashion accessories brand Jacquemus and industrial designer Studio Mærtens.

Classical architecture lends context to the furniture and objects. Opined Lippert of Form & Rausch, “I like the feeling and characteristic of old thermal bath houses or hammam.” And couldn’t we all use a dreamy escape?

REND is now open and can be viewed here.

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