We’ve worked with multi-disciplinary designer and artist Paul Bonomini on many different projects over the years. In 2018, he was selected to show a major work at the Venice Biennale, creating ‘Deconstructed Cube Form I’ specifically for the Time-Space-Existence exhibition and its location in Palazzo Bembo.

Paul Bonomini’s work is driven by geometry and hard, heavy materials. For us, creating this sculpture drew on a contrast of skills from traditional craftsmanship to the precision of our 5 axis CNC facilities. The piece was approximately 3m³ and comprises a tumbling, geometric configuration of eleven 4”x 4” Douglas fir beams and five, narrow stainless steel rods. Each beam was notated with a traditional, chiselled carpenter’s mark. The highly polished rods transect the angular, grained beams and provide a contrastingly lightweight support that raises the sculpture aloft.

The detail lay in the intersections. Where each beam crosses another, a hand crafted peg and wedge locked them securely in place. CNC technology provided precise apertures for fixings and to allow the stainless steel rods to pass seamlessly through the wood.