As a design historian, I have found the work of Dutch designer Sebastian Brajkovic stimulating and intriguing, as it is engaged in a steady conversation with the heritage of design, rethinking, revisiting, reimagining. Whether it is the neoclassical allure of 18th-century French decorative arts, the Victorian iconic tête-à-tête, or the shells of Baroque, there is always a futuristic aspect built in his objects. Brajkovic likes to construct and deconstruct, to play with historical patterns, forms, and textures in an imaginative way, always challenging their conventions. I have met him last night for the first time in New York, where he visits for the occasion of the opening of his first solo show in this country at the new and dazzling space of Carpenters Workshop Gallery. He is like a creative fountain, full of ideas and has little interest in creating industrial design, thus the limited production is a perfect fit for his love for woodcarving, bronze casting, embroidery, and other labor-intensive processes. The name of the show, ‘Lathe’ is taken from the traditional tool that rotates and utilized in woodturning, metal spinning, and glass working, processes which are is the departure point and starting inspiration for the exhibition.
