Belgian industrial designer Jens Praet who we’ve seen before on Yatzer proves that recycling can be a lot more interesting than stuffing cans, bottles, magazines and cardboard into the proper recycling containers.  Fossilized at Industry Gallery in Washington DC, is Praet’s first solo exhibition in the U.S.; his designs are made of shredded magazines and documents mixed with clear resin.
 
Fossilized features nine works – tables, consoles, benches and shelves, five of which are made of shredded magazines and four of shredded documents.  Praet recycled magazines such as Art in America, Capitol File, Details, Fast Company, and Robb Report and shredded them through the paper shredder to end up with some pounds or kilos of recycled paper.  Then, mixed with clear resin he created his own unique designs; each in an edition of 12 having created each design exclusively from a magazine title.  Furthermore, equivalent works for all the designs except the large table were also accomplished using shredded documents mixed with semi-transparent white resin to create the balance of the exhibitions nine works.

The pieces are made by mixing the shredded paper with the resin and then poured into a molding plate.  Once the resin has dried up and hardened, the pieces are popped out of the molding plate and finished off by hand.  All Fossilized items are handcrafted in cooperation with Wandschappen, Rotterdam – The Netherlands.  The creation of Fossilized was initiated by Praet’s concern regarding recycling and sustainable design, as well as the amount of paper waste being produced globally.

Fossilized is an assortment through which Praet addresses creatively, matters regarding sustainability.  He communicates his message through a limited edition piece of furniture which has been created by generating a new purpose to a mass product such as magazines.  Through this form of communication Praet makes the magazine unusable as a means of communication and information, but makes the most of it by creating a unique furniture piece.   

According to Jens Praet , “what started out as a research project, turned out to be a continuously growing furniture collection that ended up transforming seemingly useless documents and leftover magazines into useful objects.  Paper waste returns to our living or working area as usable furniture.”

Just for your info, here is a list of the magazines (named edition) and/or documents (white edition) used to create each work:
 
+ Fossilized Console Table:  Art in America & White Editions /// 11.1 pounds, 5kg
+ Fossilized Bench:  Capitol File & White Editions /// 6.65 pounds, 3kg
+ Fossilized Side Table:  Details & White Editions /// 13.25 pounds, 6kg
+ Fossilized Large Table:  Fast Company Edition /// 26.5 pounds, 12kg
+ Fossilized Large Shelf:  Robb Report & White Editions /// 8.85 pounds, 4kg

Fossilized will be running at Industry Gallery up until February 26, 2011.
1358 Florida Avenue, NE, Suite 200, Washington DC 20002