Sometimes in a certain setting, or during an exchange between aficionados, the notion of a collection becomes obvious. And so begins the story of Poinciana.
There were meetings in a tucked away mansion house in the Marais quarter of Paris, whose walls had witnessed the evolution of the Maison Delisle, “bronzier d’art” for five generations. There were visits to their workshop, near the capital, where the best artisans of France continue to practice the secrets of a craft still sought out today.
And there was the sharp look of a designer, with other cultural references from a place far away, who was enthralled by the enthusiasm of Jean Delisle, head of this great “Maison” that pursues timelessness through objects that refer to the past, breathe the present, in order to exist in the future.
But, it was ultimately, through the personal contact with the carvers, the draftsmen, and the assemblers, gathered in the workshops of Montreuil, that the structure and the idea of the collection was born.
By extracting the form of the wooden handles that sink into the craftsmen’s palms, from the punches and rasps used to form metal, stone or leather, Elliott Barnes, a Franco-American architect, saw the major notes needed to create objects that would illuminate and configure spaces.
An experienced Jazz lover, he used improvisation, like the great pianist Ahmad Jamal, to give a different character to this small wooden form so that it became a luminous element in alabaster. Held in levitation by a burned bronze frame, hammered or patinaed, the collection also offers a limited series of designs sheathed in leather.
This new arrangement has allowed Elliott Barnes to extend The Poinciana Collection to include chandeliers, pendant lights, sconces, floor lamps, table lamps and side tables. A collection of fixtures realized in collaboration with the Maison Delisle who, each year, invites a designer to develop a contemporary collection in their ateliers.
The collection will be on view at the showroom of MAISON DELISLE until the 5th of April 2019,
by appointment only. Hôtel de Canillac 4, rue du Parc Royal, 75003 Paris.
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