Steve Tanchel has collaborated with talented furniture designer Gregor Jenkin to create an exhibition where art meets design.
The inspiration for the pieces came from the Morris Isaacson high school which was a key source of the student uprising in 1976. Tanchel took photos of the art on the school desks and realized that when converted into black and white they looked like woodcuts. For Tanchel this school desk art worked because not only were they layers of history etched into the wood but they were also the secret desires of all the students that had ever sat at them. Whether it be a secret love, a fancy car or even lewd thoughts. Those anonymous contributors who all added to the complex layers of the desks are just the same as any of us.
Jenkin approached Steve after seeing the pictures and wanted to use them for school desks designed in his signature metal work. After several months of trying to work the pictures onto the metal they found a solution and produced a limited edition body of work that will be showing at Gallery MOMO on 52 7th Ave Parktown North; 16th August to the 4th of September.
