Current
Obsession
Marjan van Aubel (Netherlands, 1985) is a designer with an inquisitive, almost scientific perspective. She graduated in 2012 from the Design Products course at the Royal College of Art and is currently based in London.
CURRENT OBSESSION
MARJAN VAN AUBEL
You’ve mentioned that you are coming from a family of chemists. Can you tell a bit more about that?
Both my dad and my sister are chemists and there was always a fascination in scientific fields from my side too. For example, I followed courses at the university of Amsterdam in Quantum Physics. It is very interesting to learn different methods and ways of doing things, which are borrowed from other professions; for example how to separate colours with chromatography. These things I learned at home and they come from chemistry.
When did the fascination with material exploration begin?
It happened during my studies at Design LAB at the Rietveld Academy. I did an exchange project with Ecole Boulle in Paris on the use of ornaments. Ecole Boulle is very much about crafts and making. Back in Amsterdam I applied this way of thinking into crafting new materials. I created new materials that emphasized the ornament and its use.
Your work is based more on the quality of the material then on the shape. The shapes are almost left to chance, due to the enormous expansion of the material. Do you like this freedom that the material gives you form-wise or do you try to control it more?
Yes, I am very much enjoying this experimental boundary between controlling the material while also letting it behave freely. There should be a balance and a good mix of both.
As both wood and china are 'foam', it seems the research is targeting the expansion of the material. Why? Is it about the optimization of the potential?
In the case of foamed wood it was about optimization of the potential. You see, by this discovery I was able to create 7 tables out of one table. I planed the table down to woodchips and by doing this I was able to increase the volume of the table when I recast it. By mistake bio resin started a foaming reaction when I added water, so then I suddenly could increase the volume by 7 times. In the case of Foam China it was not about optimization. Having foamed porcelain was a completely new use of porcelain. Porcelain is never lightweight and it requires a entirely other way of producing. This is still very interesting to discover and to work on!
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