grassworks (2008-2009) are a series of experiments in self-assembly furniture - a range that is designed to be simple, space-saving and wholly sustainable. The furniture is made from bamboo laminate sheets, with an interlocking system of component parts in order to assemble each piece with dry mechanical fastening and a minimal use of glue and screws. Considering 'space' as a resource, the intention behind this collection is to try and use it wisely - multi purpose objects that fold, collapse and flat pack. Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on earth and can be harvested again and again from the same stalk. Jair Straschnow

GRASSWORKS
The Aram Gallery, London
Curated by Daniel Charny
17th September to 31st October 2009

Made of bamboo, designed for flat-pack delivery, dry (no glue) self-assembly structures with space saving storage solutions are some of the worthy features in Jair Straschnow’s furniture collection Grassworks. This checklist is good, but the most exciting aspect of this collection is the integrity, in both the structural and the aesthetic sense, of the design. Straschnow has a distinctive way of working – he launches into an intense immersive process driven by specific fascinations and usually with loyalty to a single material. The exhibits are the fruits of this method applied to Bamboo sheet laminates, and the manipulation of traditional interlocking woodworking techniques. It is a focused, hands-on, trial and error, design process. A good example of this fascination and perhaps most visible in Grassworks, is the reworking of the dovetail joint. The dovetail is a straightforward principle of slotting pieces of wood that have opposing sloped angles to wedge themselves against one another. It is much used in western joinery and Japanese woodwork. Straschnow uses the Dovetail joint not only as a detail but more interestingly as a core structural principle, showing a mastery of design rather then craft. The dovetail, like the other geometric locking principles applied in Grassworks, serves Straschnow as practical inspiration. Through various iterations and applications he generates objects that share a sense of utility. Combining the satisfaction of construction toys and the charm of interlocking treasure boxes, these furniture prototypes present an original and sparse elemental language, simple but not obvious. Added to the playful control evident in the details, and the shapes derived from the logic of the construction itself, reveals designs that are both experimental and new. Unlike many of the similarly shaped and like-minded computer generated designs we have been subjected to in recent years, Grassworks, like Jair Straschnow, are products of their own internal logic. The exhibition curated by Daniel Charny includes recently developed production ready prototypes, exhibited internationally for the first time. Israeli born Straschnow studied industrial design at the Holon Institute of Technology. Following his postgraduate studies at the Applied Arts Department Sandberg Instituut he settled in the Netherlands where he works from his Amsterdam based studio. This is his first solo exhibition in the UK.