Furniture I Emma in Paraty series

The Emma in Paraty series begins with a memory from Olga Treivas’s childhood in the Soviet Union: a drawer where pieces of a kid’s metal construction kit lay tangled together with yarn. In this series that memory is reworked through the materials and craft traditions of Brazil. Cold metal is replaced with jatobá wood, while a perforated sun motif is filled with hand embroidery. These furniture pieces bring together two worlds that have shaped her visual language: the improvised, tactile material culture of her childhood and the warmth, materiality and craft traditions of Brazil. Emma in Paraty premiered at SP-Arte, São Paulo.

Treivas and her studio nicknamed the pieces sol na peneira, a play on the Brazilian saying tapar o sol com a peneira, literally “to cover the sun with a sieve”, used to describe an unconvincing attempt to hide a truth. The embroidery is deliberately irregular. Rather than concealing imperfection, the chair makes it part of the object’s character.

Now based in São Paulo,  Olga Treivas is an architect, designer and glass artist, and founder of Treivas Architecture Bureau. Her practice moves between architecture, collectible design and material experimentation, often bringing together historical references, craft and contemporary production.

Limited edition | 8 + 2 AP

Size: 35.4 × 45.7 × 15.7 inches

Material: jatobá wood (hymenaea courbaril), yarn