Furniture made of wax or brass? Both!

CHANDIGARH: INVERTING THE NEGATIVE

In Chhattisgarh, a particular black wax, often relegated as merely a mould, became the lynchpin of the collection. In November 2023, Frédéric spent two weeks in Chhattisgarh with master craftsman Suresh Waghmare and his team, learning everything he could about the ancient Dhokra craft.

Instead of brass, the designer was taken by its pliable yet precise counterpart. The wax-moulded furniture was crafted in the rural hinterlands of the country. With a consuming mystical appearance, they stand frozen in time, as if awaiting the flames of fire. Frédéric began by observing Suresh’s studio at work, learning how wax is handled traditionally and how the unusual material behaves. He avers, “The knowledge was transmitted through dialogue, shared gestures and a mutual adjustment of their traditional methods to accommodate the larger scale and volume of the pieces we were producing.”

MUMBAI: CASTING IMPERFECTIONS

Florence Louisy, designer and creative director of Æquo, elucidates, “What binds the Waxed collection, beyond its apparent contrasts, is a shared logic of gesture. A physical language echoed across both worlds.” Æquo and Frédéric then make their way across India and find themselves in Mumbai, where the sand-casting technique presents a perfect foil to the lost wax method.

Raw, immediate and imperfect, carrying every accident of the process into the metal. Cast in sections and welded together, the pieces bear the welding marks as an ode to the process of creation. Frédéric adds, “I’ve always found it fascinating when a technique leaves its trace on a design — when a finished piece speaks both of my vision and the unique hand of the craftsman who helped shape it.”

Supported by Epsilon Foundation, the eight sculptural pieces consisting of pedestals, a coffee table, an armchair, a floor light and a console embody the push and pull between artistic mastery and the rawness of the process. This sensorial tension emerging from the duality of forms, material and structure is replete throughout the collection — mould and metal, Dhokra and sand casting, roughness and sheen. Existing as a tectonic reminder of the practice of creation.

The WAXED collection unveils on 25th April at Æquo Gallery in Mumbai!

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