For Bari Ziperstein’s first presentation with Future Perfect, she designed The Tube Chair, on view here. Ziperstein is an accomplished artist whose work has been featured in one-person and thematic exhibitions in museums and private galleries alike, and is also the founder and creative director of BZippy & Co, an acclaimed production pottery studio. This one of a kind piece occupies a familiar space for Ziperstein that lies somewhere between art and design, like a sculpture one is invited to sit on. She took the invitation to participate in this exhibition as an opportunity to explore the elements of a chair, questioning and challenging the conventions of the seat, back, and legs, ultimately coming up with a functional sculpture that recalls different kinds of seating throughout various cultures and eras.
Fabricated in her Los Angeles studio, The Tube Chair was a feat of engineering for Ziperstein and her team, requiring extensive preliminary drawings, several maquettes, and a series of quick, in-the-moment solutions to problems that threatened to compromise her vision. The resulting piece is made from extruded clay tubes that were fashioned and manipulated into place to create an abstract form that relies on the repeated tube, a shape that suggests pipes, factories, and industrial architecture. Ziperstein’s treatment of the tube, though, pushes the form into another realm. Here, the tube is bent, softened, and beautified, both surprising and inviting to viewers. The Tube Chair is the inspiration for a larger forthcoming collection designed and crafted by Ziperstein exclusively for Future Perfect, featuring architecturally scaled planters and end tables using the tube shape as a visual theme.