O M Odd Matter W Work C Close

ODD MATTER  is a design studio driven by curiosity for all the strange and wonderful. Researching, probing, creating and exploring our world’s past, present and future through it’s materials, processes and concept.

The studio believes that by working with existing processes and notions, researching these from a different more naive perspective a different kind of products can be created.  Unique and specific to the place they originate from.

Odd Matter are Dutch native Els Woldhek and  Bulgarian Georgi Manassiev. They met whilst undertaking their MA studies in the Design Products department at The Royal College of Art. The pairs common interest in the borders of creation, process and material has put them on a shared path.  One that operates across a wide range of disciplines and seeks to work with existing industries to create products, interiors, concepts or unique commissions more true and telling of their creation and ‘will’.

ODD MATTER STUDIO

Els Woldhek & Georgi Manassiev

Ruilstraat 26b

3023 xs Rotterdam The Netherlands

info@oddmatterstudio.com

kvk# 62341928 btw# 854777520B01 terms and conditions
Odd Matter - GUISE
Odd Matter - GUISE
Odd Matter - GUISE
Odd Matter - GUISE
Odd Matter - GUISE
Odd Matter - GUISE
Odd Matter - GUISE

GUISE

A About 1 /7

GUISE

the appearance of someone or something

Scagliola and Spray painted EPS foam
console, spray finish, 116: 92:40 cm
bench, spray finish: 163:40:36 cm
Odd Matter Studio for Nilufar Gallery

In a split second our brains make a decision on how we feel about the things around us. Feelings of attraction or desire instantly arise when we encounter something we like. Most often for reasons we are unaware of, based on instinct and experiences. The like or dislike has occurred before we know almost anything about an object, as such our brains are quick to judge based on what we see at first glance.

Guise explores the first encounter through the potential of two surface techniques – scagliola and spray painting. Surfaces protect what is below and allow us to interpret our environment. With that it is in our nature to select, embellish and showcase our identity and taste through them.

The techniques of scagliola and spray painting stem from very different historical periods but have both been developed to create a surface that not only protects and hides what is underneath, they create a whole new appearance. Scagliola is a technique of making realistic artificial marble, used to adorn churches and palaces such as Versailles. The spray painting technique comes from the custom car industry. As such we might also be able to observe an ancestral tendency to put great effort in creating the surface of things to make them more attractive and desirable. A superficial identity with which we want to associate ourselves.

Guise plays with these notions by focussing on the surface, exploring a world of possibilities within the two techniques and embracing an almost scary instinct to subvert the meaning of something and faking is real nature.

Scagliola and Spray painted EPS foam.