Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 37.
Occupation: Sculptor
Instagram: @ian_collings
Hometown: Virginia
Studio Location: Ojai
Describe what you make: Sculpture.
Designer of the Day
Designer of the Day: Ian Collings
From his days at the Pratt Institute to his postgraduate path in furniture design, a love for shape and form has always been at the core of Ian Collings’ work. In 2018, he turned his focus to sculpture full-time, left the design studio he co-founded in New York, and embarked on a three-year hiatus, during which he found abundant inspiration in the landscape of Central American rainforests. These days, the designer splits his time between Ojai, California, and Pavones, Costa Rica, finding new ways to present stone in the form of sculptural and functional design objects.
by Jenna Adrian-Diaz
October 17, 2022
Credit: Lou Mora
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Refigured White 3. Photos courtesy of the artist and the Future Perfect.
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The most important thing you’ve designed to date: Life is an ongoing process and the things I make are reflections of its unfolding.
Describe the problem your work solves: My work solves no problems, but it does put me in relationship to the earth in a new way- it deepens my awareness of its natural rhythms.
Describe the project you are working on now: The rocks I carve are part of the earth, the earth is part of the cosmos. In this sense I suppose I’m carving parts of the cosmos.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: “When the Sun Loses Its Light,” a group show at Blum & Poe in Los Angeles on view through Oct. 22. “Refigured,” at The Future Perfect, in New York City, on view through Oct. 2022.
Installation view of "Refigured," at the Future Perfect.
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Refigured 10
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Refigured Totem 2
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What you absolutely have to have in your studio: Music, snacks, art, vibes, etc. I work mostly outside and I’m equally grateful for the bright white California sun and the costal fog that hangs in the mornings.
What you do when you’re not working: Exploring the world with my wife and five-year-old daughter. Beyond that, the work I make is incredible physical and so resting the body becomes important.
Sources of creative envy (dead or alive): We have more access than ever to the great cauldron of ideas—it all has value. More importantly we can see more clearly their roots, sources, important connections, and hybrids.
The distraction you want to eliminate: Needing to move. despite working with a heavy material, permanent or even slightly stable space and place have eluded me in studio and home.
Refigured White 4
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Refigured 1
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Concrete or marble? Marble, granite, onyx, calcite.
High-Rise or Townhouse? Country house with vegetable garden.
Remember or Forget? Collective memory.
Aliens or Ghosts? I wonder if aliens believe in ghosts.
Dark or Light? Dark becomes light, light becomes dark.
The artist, photographed in his studio. Studio portraits credit: Lou Mora
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