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S
ix years ago, designers Christian
Swafford and Lauren Larson—then
employees at Studio Sofield and
Victoria Hagan, respectively—started
using their nights and weekends for
their own creative pursuits. They made
sculptural coatracks that were inspired by a 1920s Man
Ray photograph and chairs that bore pagan symbols,
along the way leaving their day jobs to launch their
own studio, Material Lust. Ever since, the couple has
steadily built a portfolio of objects that hover between
art and design, supplementing their income with
anonymous commissions for other brands.
Now the duo has turned that insider knowledge
into their own collection of products for a more mass
market. “After working in the design world, we knew what our
peers were looking for,” Swafford explains of Orphan Work,
their new array of lighting and objects. Hits include brushed-I could never find.”concepts behind the work, and all
people wanted to talk about was the
materiality,” reflects Larson, noting
that they were pleasantly surprised
when they showed their most recent
body of work—ambiguously func-
tional sculptures wrapped in latex
or fringed with plastic zip ties—
at New York’s Independent art fair.
“No one asked what other colors
the latex came in. Or if they could
make something 10 inches longer,”
Larson recalls. “They actually
treated it like what it is—sculpture.”material-lust.com (^) —HANNAH MARTIN
ONES TO WATCH
Material LustMixing art and design practicesunder one roof, a New York–based duo hits their stride