33 Step Chair by Zhipeng Tan

Since graduating with an industrial design degree from the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, Zhipeng Tan has focused on the ancient technique of lost-wax casting. Through this foundry process, rich in heritage and tradition, Tan explores his interest in organic forms. Often inspired by his environmental surroundings, such as water and plants, he explores anthropomorphic themes, as well. Though trained as an industrial designer, he has become an accomplished self-taught sculptor, eagerly exploring the elastic and permeable boundaries between art and design and finding a harmonious fusion of sculpture and furniture, provocative objects of both beauty and utility.

In spite of his rigorous training in computer modeling, Tan develops all of his concepts exclusively with hand drawing, preferring the direct connection to his work that sketching provides. As he likes to say, “Every line in the artwork is touched by me.” Most of his work is hand-sculpted in clay, and the final work is achieved through casting, hammering, welding and polishing. He has chosen brass as his preferred medium in part because of its connection to historical tradition, but most especially because of its warm color, rich luster and versatility.

The 33 Step Collection is the most visceral work to come of out Tan’s studio. There are 33 vertebrae in a human spine, hence the name for this chair that inverts the body and places the cervical vertebrae on the floor and the pelvis as the seat.

The pelvis seat motivates us to think about this central part of the human skeletal structure; the fulcrum between the spine and the legs, the ‘basket’ of female reproductive organs; the space we all pass through. The gold colour of the chair makes it appear somewhere between a classical sculpture, a Rorschach Test, and a functional piece of furniture.