Lebanese artisti and designer Wyssem Nochi gets inspiration from multiple sources, including the creative world itself as well as social and political issues. The result: design objects, installations and one-offs that cannot easily be categorized, that fluctuate amidst the experimental and the experiential. His objects often need a close view, need understanding of the driving forces behind his designs and creations.
Following are three of Nochi’s intriguing projects.
BUCK$ ARM CHAIR
Nochi’s witty Buck$ arm chair is made of paper, plywood and polycarbonate skin. The skin, strapped to a ply-wood palette, covesr a stack of 18,000 dollar bills, – banded block notes printed on 80-grade “surfin” paper, with Nochi skull x-ray replacing the president’s portrait.
FE (FERTILIZER)
Iron fertilization is intended to enhance biological productivity; it can benefit the marine food chain and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, iron is a trace element necessary for photosynthesis in all plants.
A grey cast-iron bench was machine ground and put in 24 numbered glass jars to serve as fertilizer to infuse in water or sprinkle over earth. Glass jars contain remnant iron dust and a cross-section of each bench leg.
LIQUID MERCURY HEXAGON
Wyssem Nochi presented Stage Four from “The Seven Stages of the Heart – a collaboration with Bokja – Huda Baroudi and Maria Hibri – presented in Design Day Dubai 2013. The collection is rooted in the Sufi teaching that in order to liberate oneself from the layers of ignorance, one must embark on a pilgrimage through the seven stages of the heart. Fourteen mirror-polished stainless-steel, chairs, seven of which the extension of the lines of hexagon form a pyramid, put the head and breathing person’s nose within an invisible pyramid’s energy field. Each chair represents a stage in the journey to remove all material, and earthly desires.