HEIRLOOMS IN THE MAKING
Gareth Neal creates stunning pieces of furniture that are not only purposeful, but works of art in their own right
Gareth Neal crafts innovative wooden pieces, from seating to sculpture
Hidden behind a row of Georgian houses in a suburb of north- east London lies furniture designer Gareth Neal’s workshop. Once an old printing factory, the studio is a secluded retreat for him to focus on his designs, with plenty of space to make noise with large machinery. Just outside the small but perfectly formed studio, he adds the ! nishing touches to the latest of his unique pieces of furniture – the Hack chair.
Gareth combines digital and traditional techniques to produce conceptual pieces of furniture that take inspiration from the cultures that preceded them. Whether it’s a fresh take on a George III chest of drawers or a contemporary edge on a Roman vessel, each functional sculpture that comes out of the workshop stands by his personal mantra: people, process and place. These empower Gareth to approach each new project with an appreciation of fellow cra "speople, a greater understanding of historical techniques and a respect for the natural environment. It’s this commitment that makes his statement pieces really special – and the V& A certainly agrees.
The Brodgar chair, created in collaboration with Orkney furniture maker Kevin Gauld, can now be seen on display in its permanent collection. This is in fact the second of his pieces to be exhibited, a !er his George chest of drawers was acquired back in 2013.
‘I see my furniture design as a form of sculpting that creates something practical.’
Practical thinking
From a young age, Gareth dreamed of pursuing a career as a furniture maker. ‘ My mum gave me some school reports from when I was nine, and I had wri"en that I wanted to be either a po"er, a furniture maker or an actor.’ Even though the idea of engineering pieces of furniture was always there, other creative outlets were a consideration. ‘ I really wanted to be a photographer, but as a friend pointed out to me, photography can be a hobby, but furniture is much harder to turn into a hobby.’
Gareth decided to study furniture design and cra !smanship, a discipline that melded arts and cra !s, as well as traditional carpentry. ‘Right from when I graduated, I started to sell my work. I had some really unique exhibitions with the likes of Sotheby’s, prior to starting my studio in 2002,’ he explains. Soon a !er, Gareth began to think carefully about the type of work that he wanted to create. ‘ My brother did a degree in sculpture and I didn’t see the functionality of it. I see my furniture design as a form of sculpting that creates something practical,’ he says.
From the get-go, Gareth has tried to make his designs as environmentally friendly as possible – his Hack chair uses discarded wood from the timber industry. ‘ They tend to cut the trunk out of the tree and then the crown or the stump is not used as it is deemed valueless. We take these fairly unwanted elements of the furniture industry and cut out a form’.
Telling a story
Passion, precision and telling a story are at the foundation of the pieces that Gareth cra !s. ‘ The ability to create a narrative behind my work is vital,’ he
says. ‘ It’s important to ! nd the story in order to give the piece of furniture something more than just being nice to look at.’
Every project has its own individuality, but once the brief has been set, the process is quite consistent. There are countless steps that go into the design of each of his works, such as the use of 3D drawings. ‘ The computer can be an amazing tool to develop works. Things evolve so much faster and you can really re! ne an idea.’ In the case of the Hack chair, a 7-axis CNC machine does the initial hard gra " of carving out the design.
In with the new
Throughout Gareth’s expansive career, collaborating has been a constant – and it remains to this day a primary source of inspiration. ‘ The collaboration with [architect] Zaha Hadid is very precious to me, as is the work I created with Kevin Gauld up in Orkney.’ His most recent collaboration with those champions of British cra ", The New Cra "smen, is scheduled to be revealed at the London Design Festival in September.
So, what’s next for Gareth? Recently, he has taken a step away from wood and is now embarking on digitally printed sand vessels. ‘ I’m really proud of this work, and it’s ge#ing an amazing response,’ he says. Beyond that, he will continue to cra " beautiful sculptures from his li#le slice of countryside in the big city.
You can see more of Gareth’s work and read about upcoming shows at garethneal.co.uk and also at sarahmyerscough.com