Florence Deau 
BCXSY is a cooperation between designers Boaz Cohen and Sayaka Yamamoto. Contrast is the result of their collaboration with Meitheal Mara – (translated from Irish roughly as, workers of the sea or sea community) Meitheal Mara is a charitable maritime cultural and educational centre based in Cork City in the south of Ireland, who’s main goal is to preserve the craftsmanship of traditional Irish boat building). Here are the minimalist side table and stool from that collection.
The multidisciplinary arts organization, Sirius Art Centre, based in Cobh, County Cork, has commissioned us through their internationally recognized artist in residency program to collaborate with Meitheal Mara.
The boat-building techniques we have witnessed at Meitheal Mara were very different from the traditional artistry we have worked with in the past – they utilize rougher, unrefined and simple methods, while being strikingly efficient. Observing their work we were fascinated by how almost magically, in a matter of a few days, a vessel can be constructed which allows people to travel on the water.
Due to the fact that the work done by the participants at Meitheal Mara is specific and created to achieve a functional end-result, without involving much attention to cosmetic details, and that the artisans are comprised of people with a variety of backgrounds, skills levels and working schemes, the project has turned out to be particularly challenging.
Building, or redesigning a boat was never our intention for this collaboration. Our goal was rather to employ the naturalness, efficiency and functionality of Meitheal Mara traditional working methods and distil various various elements involved in the boat-building process in order to create new objects that are aesthetically far away from what Meitheal Mara does in their day-to-day work, yet always remaining focused on maintaining the link to their inspirational-origin.
Photos © Rory O’Toole
+ Via BCXSY
