RINGS Artek

RINGS, Artek. Design by Nao Tamura.

What does eighty years look like?

A single tree holds its entire history. Year by year, ring by ring, it records what happened: seasons of plenty, years of drought. The size is never the same. Each mark is a record of survival.

RINGS lays that record over the precise geometry of Alvar Aalto’s Stool 60, made for its eightieth year. The contrast was the point. Eighty years of a stool, eighty years of a tree, held in the same object. It was auctioned in New York in November 2012 for the Design Trust for Public Space.

Client
Artek
Year
2012
Contact
artek.fi

RINGS, Artek. Design by Nao Tamura. | Brooklyn. A woodworker friend cutting the log. One section of it became the print. — Brooklyn. A woodworker friend cutting the log. One section of it became the print.

RINGS, Artek. Design by Nao Tamura.

RINGS, Artek. Design by Nao Tamura. | The screen at Haven Press, Brooklyn. Eighty years of growth, held in mesh. — The screen at Haven Press, Brooklyn. Eighty years of growth, held in mesh.

RINGS, Artek. Design by Nao Tamura. | Stacked, the rings multiply—one tree's record, again and again. — Stacked, the rings multiply—one tree's record, again and again.

RINGS, Artek. Design by Nao Tamura. | Haven Press/Mark Hershede, Brooklyn. Each top pulled by hand. — Haven Press/Mark Hershede, Brooklyn. Each top pulled by hand.

RINGS, Artek. Design by Nao Tamura. | The seat: a cross section of an 80-year-old tree, screen-printed white on black. — The seat: a cross section of an 80-year-old tree, screen-printed white on black.

RINGS, Artek. Design by Nao Tamura. | Artek's map of its own eighty years—every hand that shaped it. One small dot near Design: mine. — Artek's map of its own eighty years—every hand that shaped it. One small dot near Design: mine.

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