Korban / Flaubert

Antipodean Aussies Korban/Flaubert invaded New York in May during Design Week with two outstanding exhibitions. The first was "Automatic" which opened with an installation at the Diesel Denim Gallery in Soho and the second "Growth Patterns" which was organized by MOD at a space in the Meatpacking District. This K/F first solo exhibition (or should we say dual exhibition) in the US. Automatic was organized by MOD's good friend Sebastien AGNEESSENS of Formavision with a little inspiration from the MOD crew and featured a mind blowing installation that created the sense of walking through a DNA molecule aka a scene from "Innerspace" with Martin Short. The experiential aspect of taking microscopic elements and enlarging them to super human scale is an experiment that K/F has been researching for several years now. The "Growth Patterns" presentation by the MOD team focused on limited series pieces that included screens, lighting and various seating, or lounging, as one might have it. The segue between installation and limited production highlights K/f's ability to cross the boundaries between art and design as well as address the juxtaposition of art and nature. See www.korbanflaubert.com for more information.

Recently featured on the cover of Surface Magazine, korban/flaubert is a design and production partnership between Janos Korban (b.1961), a metalwork specialist with a background in psychology and genetics, and architect Stefanie Flaubert (b.1965). Established in Stuttgart Germany in the first half of the 1990s korban/flaubert relocated to Sydney, Australia in 1995 to set up a workshop to explore ideas for form and furniture. Focusing on collaborative investigations into materials, structure and spatial relationships, they produce a range of eclectic furniture and lighting, as well as more ambiguous forms and large site specific space/sculpture commissions for commercial and private clients..

Korban/Flaubert Design Vision ³We explore mathematics and geometry as a way of understanding the world: the building blocks of life! We explore growth patterns in nature and their genius at generating complexity with the simplest sequences. This is our way of reaching an understanding of fundamental forms, patterns and visual phenomena.²

They describe their organic approach to design as a Œprocess of discovery¹. The function is not predetermined. Through experimenting with materials, volume and action an end product might emerge as a seat, a light or some sculptural fantasy. The application is found in the form itself, Œthe idea falls out of life, the form falls out of the idea¹.

³Our pieces, like life in Australia, are equally at home inside or outside. We take our inspiration from the natural world at all its scales: from micro to macro².