Little houses
2007-2010
From a dialogue with the chainsaw came the Casette, a free and independent research project. At times these Casette serve as conceptual models for real architectures to be built. But sometimes they don’t. They linger instead as metaphysical presences in the studio; and sometimes I leave them there for a while to rest. Then I can watch the changes made by time, the cracks and the movement of fibres and other signs of ageing, which are not in fact defects but precisely the emerging of a hidden beauty.
When working with such a fleeting, heavy and rough medium, errors are constant. But the nicest thing about that is that with wood no real errors exist: a mistake which in marble would be unforgivable, in wood engenders fresh discoveries. The discontinuity of a cut, a change of veining or surface shades, may also lead to inanimate things.
Wood cut with a chainsaw becomes pulp, and one almost feels like eating it. Sometimes in fact, when nobody’s looking, I do actually eat it.
Michele De Lucchi, December 2011