‘The Secret to Longevity’
'The Secret to Longevity', by Olivia Lee and Nature Squared
‘I like to create a sense of surprise and wonder, so that you get to dig down into the creation’
Olivia Lee’s longevity-themed collection of four objects is both a meditation on the mythology of wellness and a work of supreme artisanship, courtesy of Lee’s fabrication partner Nature Squared.
The collection’s marquee piece is the ‘Elixir’ cabinet. Part medicine cabinet, part room divider, part dresser, it takes its cues from the traditional Chinese screen. But Lee’s elaborate design transforms and updates it with intricate, gorgeously rendered inlays of brass, pearl and shells, as well as teak and feather flourishes. It features compartments for what Lee calls ‘modern-day elixirs’, the secret serums and potions that promise to prolong youthful appearance. The collection also comprises three smaller pieces, including the ‘Adonis’, a shagreen and pufferfish skin clutch with a concealed mirror and a compartment for vitamins and aphrodisiacs; the ‘Hedonist’, a small box with a hidden compartment that pops out to serve as an emergency caviar eating set; and the ‘Dandy’, a flask featuring an interlocking pattern of buffalo horn and eggshell and a hidden comb.
‘I’m very interested in rituals, and this was an opportunity to think about all the cultural nuances that are embedded in a discussion about wellness,’ says Lee, one of a group of Singapore-based designers who contributed to this year’s Handmade as part of a partnership between Wallpaper* and the Designsingapore Council.
Lee’s collection for us was not her only one at this year’s Salone del Mobile in Milan. She also launched Play House, a furniture range focusing on the intrusion of technology into the family home. Ever since we first featured her in our 2015 annual Design Directory (W*196), the Central Saint Martins alumnus and Sebastian Bergne protégée has consistently impressed with the emotionally intelligent way she approaches design.
‘I layer my work with a light narrative, whimsy and theatrics,’ Lee says. ‘Sebastian taught me to have a sense of humour, to be poetic and refined in my execution. I like to create a sense of surprise and wonder so that you get to dig down into the creation. And each time you come back to it, you discover something new.’
Lee’s creative approach was tested to its limits by the fabrication process, which was both time-consuming and fiendishly difficult due to the pieces’ intricate interlocking parts. The cause was helped considerably by Nature Squared, a Switzerland-based studio that applies artisanal techniques to natural sustainable materials – abalone shells, stones, abandoned termite nests, grass, seeds – to create new material for use in super-yachts, luxury boutiques and mega mansions.
Much of the work was executed in Nature Squared’s factory, in Cebu, the Philippines, the project running through Christmas and well into February this year. ‘Olivia’s designs were very cohesive, but they were also deceptively simple,’ says Lay Koon Tan, the studio’s co-founder. ‘The mixing and matching of different skins, stones, shells and bones that she specified posed very technical challenges. We had to put in extra shifts.’
In fact, a few days before the pieces were due to be shipped from Cebu to Singapore, Lee realised the background to the ‘Elixir’ cabinet was not dark enough. The Filipino artisans arched their collective eyebrows and got to work. In any other country, Lee says, ‘they would have said, “No, it can’t be done.” The artistry that went into the marquetry and detailing was mindboggling.’
So much so that both Lee and Nature Squared have been unable to bid adieu to the project. ‘We had such a positive experience working on this together that we’re exploring ways to commercialise the designs,’ she says. Against the background of her bijou studio, piled with sketches and models, she is the very image of serenity – a state of being we will be the first to take credit for.