Come September, when American designer Sebastian Errazuriz’s solo exhibition Look Again opens at Carnegie Museum of Art in the US, his creation—the ‘Explosion’ cabinet—is bound to turn heads. The piece, which he perfected in a year, has already caused quite a stir, thanks to its fluid, futuristic design. Made with maple wood, glass and stainless steel, it looks like any other ‘ordinary’ wooden piece until it opens. And when it does, it’s like an effortless amalgamation of art and science. The cabinet comes undone with a slight push and slides gently over the rails. The exterior extends outward, piece by piece, until the entire cabinet looks as if it has exploded from within.
The trick is actually quite simple, and is based on one of the oldest methods of cabinet making, called ‘sliding dovetail’. The 37-year old designer has stepped up a simple, old trick to create something extraordinary.
Not that the New York-based Errazuriz is the only one creating ‘exploding’ furniture. Dutch designer Kiki van Eijk created something similar a few years ago. At the Dutch Design Week in 2012, she showcased a cabinet that was somewhat similar to Errazuriz’s creation.
Made of elm wood, van Eijk’s giant cabinet–that took her four years to perfect–opened like a sewing box. The beauty of the piece lay not only in its sheer size but also in the mechanism working behind it. Supported by springs, the structure could be opened up by gently pulling the cleaves made on either side of the cabinet. All eight parts, joined together with wooden shafts and brass knobs, slightly undulated while opening before becoming still. This functional furniture held together on four sturdy legs reminded viewers of the classic multi-level sewing box design.