Flora Noir Furniture Collection by Marcin Rusak.

Flora Cabinet, 2017. Dimensions: 172 (w) x 44 (d) x 66 (h) cm

Flora Standing Object, 2017. Dimensions:45 (w) x 16 (d) x 72 (h) cm

Flora Coffee Table I, 2017. Dimensions: 42 (w) x 18 (d) x 60 (h) cm

Flora Coffee Table II, 2017. Dimensions: 70 (w) x 70 (d) x 32 (h) cm

Warsaw-born London-based designer Marcin Rusak has released a series of new resin furniture for his latest exhibition in New York‘s Chelsea. But this is no ordinary resin gig. Rusak takes leaves of tropical plants, flowers and other botanicals, and impregnates them within the suspended world of resin. The result is a stunning Flora Noir collection.

Rusak is no stranger to taking flowers and freeze framing them within his resin worlds. But this collection stands out from his previous one by the bolder shapes and bigger petals. He wanted the pieces to stand apart from the last showing which featured delicate, colourful flowers. And stand out it does.

He gets the flowers from florists who throw out tons of waste buds every day. And that works for him. Because the flowers he’s after are not in their prime – in fact, he deliberately sources flowers that are on their way to decaying. He feels the decay ironically shows more life. The plants start changing colours and he likes their inherit imperfection. There’s a beauty in the reclamation of taking what has been discarded because it no longer represents classical beauty and reinstating that beauty through the process of his art. Perhaps one might argue, making the flowers infinitely more beautiful in the process and most certainly timeless in the way normal flowers are not.

Related post: Marcin Rusak’s ‘Flora’ Collection Made from Real Flowers Encased in Resin.

Flora Low Table, 2016. Dimensions: 116 (w) x 116 (d) 30 (h) cm

Flora Wall Hanging Piece, 2016. Dimensions:45 (w) x 3 (d) 45 (h) cm

Flora Lamp I, 2016. Dimensions: 42 (w) x 18 (d) x 60 (h) cm

Flora Lamp II, 2016. Dimensions: 45 (w) x 12 (d) 57 (h) cm

Flora Table, 2016. Dimensions: 190 (w) x 190 (d) 76 (h) cm

It’s no easy process to create these masterpieces either. The London based designer carefully selects the flowers and arranges them within an empty mould. Because he is working upside down, and the flowers are read from the bottom he can only imagine what the finished product looks like. So the composition process can take up to three days. With resin, you don’t get a second chance at rearranging the contents, so he has to be sure. He then pours the resin and as the pieces dry, the flowers are suspended within what appearsto be a watery grave.

The Flora Noir range includes screens and lamps of black resin with brass framing and casings and the tables are cast in aluminium with circular resin tops. Rusak also cuts the resin blocks into strips creating fragmented images of the flowers trapped within.

From afar the pieces read like opals, the dense blackness with the silver voids of light around the flowers. But up close the beauty and detail of his work is evident. Each flower and petal, a separate and spectacular expression of the beauty inherent in nature.

Related post: Marcin Rusak’s ‘Flora’ Collection Made from Real Flowers Encased in Resin.

[Images courtesy of Marcin Rusak.]