Marcin Rusak

Marcin Rusak’s Perma collection, specially created for the gallery, is layered with environmental, cultural, social and aesthetic concerns that are informed by the designer’s holistic approach to research. 

His innovative furniture-sculptures are made using the excess accumulated by florists; the discarded flowers are given a new life cycle by becoming the very essence of the material. Marcin mines our perceptions of beauty and its transience; the petals, stems and buds encased within the Perma material appear like veins in marble or cavities in fossilised stones and create an unexpected array of colour combinations and painterly effects. These elements are completely stable within the material and will last a lifetime. Every now and again, however, a flower is cut through the middle during the planing process, meaning that it lives at the surface of the material, unprotected: this flower will eventually dry up and disappear entirely, leaving only a small cavity as a trace of its existence. These fleeting elements are just as valuable as those which remain; they poetically reflect the mutability of all living things. 

The Perma collection also incorporates references to cultural and personal histories; not only does Marcin recall - and revitalise - our long obsession with flower motifs in furniture decoration, the designer also recalls his own family history: he is the son and grandson of flower growers and preserving this heritage is an essential part of his practice.