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To look at David Wiseman's intricate and opulent designs, you would think he's been working for decades. In fact, he is just 33, yet he is managing to produce some of the most inspired decorative art in America.
Mary Kaye Schilling
The breadth of his work becomes abundantly clear when you step into his new show, "Wilderness and Ornament," at New York City's R & Company. He has clearly internalized centuries of global design, and the resulting, exquisitely detailed creations—whimsical confabulations of metal, porcelain, and crystal—are deeply rooted in his love of the natural world.
Photo by Joe Kramm/R & Company
At the show's opening on May 11, the California-raised Wiseman explained that the furniture and objects on display spring from the work he was doing right after he graduated from RISD, in 2003. "I started making ceilings for clients, with porcelain and plaster canopies of branches—trees that looked like they were emerging through the surface of the wall. Those branches evolved into chandeliers, and that led to a whole other body of work, including everything here."
Mary Kaye Schilling
Wiseman has created site-specific installations for public institutions and private collections, but what he was longing to produce was an environment where "you become engulfed in the experience." The result is the anchor for his R & Company show: an enchanting room at the center of the gallery, set off by filigreed bronze doors of surprising delicacy. The bright white walls within are festooned with an eccentric array of plaster motifs—everything from Gothic quatrefoils to Vienna Secessionist fish scales. "I was looking for a fresh take on ornamentation," said Wiseman. The effect is not unlike living wallpaper, with references to his favorite patterns from the places that inspire him, including Nepal, the Middle East, France, and Vienna.
Mary Kaye Schilling
In the left hand corner of the room hangs "a nod to Flemish still life painting"—a white hare strung up to the ceiling by it's porcelain feet. It's charming (despite the fact that it's clearly meant to be dead) and, according to Wiseman, represents "what all of this is about: appreciating nature and finding a way to bring it indoors. It's also a way to reference the illustrious history of decorative art. There's an historical precedent for everything in the room."
Mary Kaye Schilling
History is revealed in even the smallest objects. Wiseman shows me a new project—a collection of densely carved scent spheres made of silver, bronze, and brass. "They're a riff on a very old item, a pomander, which was a functional object people wore in the Middle Ages—I think the Pope might still wear one," said Wiseman, who casts all of his work by hand at his foundry in Los Angeles. Inside each sphere are hand-carved ebony crystals which Wiseman soaks in scents; when you shake the sphere they effervesce and the scent is released.
Mary Kaye Schilling
I was intrigued by a collection of fanciful cake stands, each, as Wiseman explained, a "complete environment unto itself. My work is really about playing," he added. "It evolves because it wants to be that way. I feel like I'm just the manager, and my role is to take a step back and see how the materials interact."
His inspirations include designers Ted Muehling, Isamu Noguchi, Alexander Knoll, and Dagobert Peche of the Wiener Werkstatte: "People who engaged with nature and who take on the challenge of incorporating it into our lives with objects that are decorative but also functional," said Wiseman, who is interested in the beauty of durability; like the bronze he often works with, he wants his creations to not only last, but to evolve as they are used, their allure increasing with age. "I want these pieces to be relevant to people's lives," he said. "I have a problem with something on a pedestal that you can't touch. I want people to interact with what I create."
" David Wiseman: Wilderness and Ornament ," will be at R & Company, 82 Franklin Street, through June 25, 2015.
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Source: https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a3175/david-wiseman-r-and-company/
