Designer featured at Johnson Trading Gallery in Design Miami
WHITEWALL: How’s your time in Miami going so far?
MAX LAMB: I arrived on Thursday evening, family vacation this year so my parents and sister are all here. I’ve not been involved so much with the setting up of the exhibition at the Johnson Trading Gallery booth. My pieces, though heavy, can be positioned quite easily.
WW: The pewter stools that you have at the booth are made from creating a mold in the sand and pouring pewter in, correct?
ML: Yes I wait until the tide has gone completely out because the sand is more compact then. I trace an outline with a kitchen knife, push in three metal to create the legs, and then create the design for the top of the bench in the sand. Then I melt down the pewter in a camping stove and pour it in. I use really low-tech materials and low-tech processes. It’s a single casting - wait twenty minutes, and then dig it out.
WW: This year at Design Miami organic design is everywhere – have you noticed that as well?
ML: There are more contemporary designers producing work this way. For me it’s a personal desire and pleasure making things myself with my hands. It’s a reaction to industrialized production processes - perfection that is so easily obtained through production processes but loses all soul. What I’m doing is slowing down. I think it is something that a lot of other people are getting to appreciate and enjoy and see value in. Maintaining identity from a consumer’s point of view, is a platform for producing and selling individual works of design. It’s not something I chose to be a part of, I’m not necessarily saying it’s always a good thing, but because of the nature of my work and because of the time that it takes to produce the pieces, they will retain a value higher than mass produced works.
WW: Is there anything this week you’re really looking forward to, apart from your time at the booth?
ML: The glass lab is something that I think is really cool. Seeing things transformed from raw material into functioning product is something I find absolutely fascinating and I want other people to find fascinating.
WW: Which is why you have video that accompanies your work in installations, here at Design Miami and at your fall opening at Johson Trading Gallery in New York.
ML: I wanted my work to be about communicating and also engaging with the viewer, the onlooker, or the consumer. It allows me to interact with people seeing my work. That’s why I’ve come to Miami again so that I can meet the people who are interested in my work. It’s enjoyable. I’m not just sketching, I’m physically making my work and selling my work and meeting the people interested in living with my work.
