Artist “Fixes” Broken Wooden Furniture With Modern Translucent Materials

Brazilian artist Tatiane Freitas blends classic and contemporary design for her My New Old Chair series. In a twist on kintsugi—a Japanese tradition where fractured pottery is repaired with gold—broken furniture is revitalized through the addition of acrylic resin. The resulting contemporary, yet vintage, pieces demonstrate a harmony of opposing forces. In fact, it’s this push and pull that interests the artist. By harnessing the memory of what was, and adding to the empty space, she at once honors the past, yet leaves room for future memories.

Her mixing of materials demonstrates a “clear wish to create pieces which will endure the harshness of time, and therefore bring to their new owners the memories evoked in her, many lost in history.” Freitas, who recently showed work at Guy Hepner in New York, succeeds in highlighting the original wood material. This is owed to her creative selection of translucent acrylic, which renders the pieces functional and modern, yet melts away visually. Thus, old and new coexist harmoniously, proving that these opposing themes are not mutually exclusive—causing viewers to ruminate on what the word “broken” truly signifies.