Issey Miyake Exhibits Artifacts, Paper Logs and Paper Chairs at Milan Design Week

Issey Miyake and Ensamble Studio debut a unique material study in Milan, transforming recycled pleating paper into structural furniture and eerie art forms.

A new research project by Issey Miyake in collaboration with Ensamble Studio, a Madrid- based architectural firm, is being spotlighted during the ongoing Milan Design Week. An exhibition at the Issey Miyake Milan flagship store, “The Paper Log: Shell and Core” offers a glimpse into the company’s continuing material investigation into the textures, tones, and structural potential of paper, with vast volumes of it already being created as a by-product of the studio’s signature pleating technology. The prototypes presented such in the exhibition such as paper chairs and paper logs, among others, are delicate, sturdy, primitive, finely layered, and raw, and are adorned with traces of soft rainbow-toned marbling.

Furthermore, Issey Miyake’s “Core” creations, comprising chairs, benches, and tables, complement Ensamble Studio’s “Shell” which consists of deconstructed abstractions, molded forms, and lampshades. Explaining the idea that sparked the genesis for the project, Satoshi Kondo, design director of Miyake Design Studio, pointed to the dense tree-like rolls of paper kept at one of their manufacturing sites to protect Issey Miyake garments as they are inserted into pleating machines, before being compressed. As a starting point, the compressed paper “logs” are made up of countless wafer-fine sheets with circular marbling in delicate shades of pinks, blues, greys, and yellows.

Moreover, artifacts in several forms, textures, and shapes are displayed in the Milan exhibition. Issey Miyake’s “Shell” and “Core” exhibitions are connected through both infinite possibilities of paper and the creative values that shape the company, despite them being diverse in texture, atmosphere, shape, and form. According to Kondo, “Underlying this project is the spirit of Issey Miyake – both the designer himself and the company. Core is like the human body, and Shell is a piece of cloth. And the space between them is unfilled – or ma. The two co-exist and complement each other.” CIO Bulletin views Issey Miyake’s latest exhibition as bringing a fresh, new perspective to art and architecture that can be appreciated by the general audience and connoisseurs alike.