Designer offers ‘kinetic’ take on everyday furnishings

We would still sit ourselves down in chairs if Tom Loeser weren’t designing them. It’s just that it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun — or as intellectually provocative.

Loeser has been on the art faculty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison since 1991. In the intervening years he steadily has been building his reputation as one of America’s premiere furniture designers. Critics routinely describe his pieces — everything from headboards to cabinets to footstools, all handcrafted from wood — as “witty,” “engaging,” “unexpected.” Certainly each item Loeser creates embodies all those characteristics. However, underlying those descriptions is another, put forth by the artist himself.

“Kinetic. The sense that the pieces are not static,” he says.

Loeser’s “kinetic furniture” is the most recent evolutionary phase of a career spanning more than 20 years. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Haverford College, Loeser took an enrichment class in woodworking, an interest he had harbored all his life. Another degree in furniture design from Boston University and a master of fine arts from the University of Massachusetts followed.

Loeser’s career-making break came in1982, in the form of “The Folding Chair,” a fusion of art and engineering that can be viewed in either two dimensions (when closed and mounted on the wall it becomes a piece of abstract art) or three (when opened into the sitting position). One of that 37-piece limited edition remains ensconced in Loeser’s loft/living space on Madison’s East Side. In fact, a veritable receiving line of five other chairs greet visitors; the one with handcrafted antlers is Loeser’s own work. The rest are the products of his students.

Kimberly Sotelo was one of those students almost a decade ago. Today, she is a successful furniture artist whose pieces, usually willow, often incorporate glass. In a rustic tradition but sporting a pronounced contemporary slant, her work appears regularly in such venues as the International Contemporary Furniture Show in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, Madison’s Art Fair on the Square and other shows across Wisconsin and Illinois. Sotelo credits Loeser’s classes with helping her discover her own artistic voice.

“I learned to begin with an idea and trust that the design would follow. Tom designs his assignments to get his students thinking about furniture in new ways. For example, if the assignment was to make a box, he would want you to make the box to hold something meaningful. A piece of furniture’s basic function does not have to be its only meaning,” she says.

The pattern of Loeser’s week this semester is three full days of teaching furniture design on various levels, and two days of his own work. At the studio, pieces wait in the studio in various degrees of completion. Painted work shows a marked proclivity toward a particular shade of sea foam green combined with Williamsburg blue. Some pieces are waiting to be shipped. The Leo Kaplan gallery in New York handles sales of Loeser’s work.

Consistent needling of the status quo is a constant in Loeser’s canon. For instance, a wall-mounted cabinet, titled “Truth or Consequences,” fixes drawers stationary, a favorite Loeser design gambit. The chest opens by sliding its main frame to the side of its stationary drawers.

Similarly, Loeser’s circular benches, which seem to be plush rest stops for gallery goers, actually are performance art. When a group has been seated, the slightest movement of one member sets the bench in motion, thanks to strategically placed ball bearings.

“It can prompt power struggles, because the sitters have to negotiate who decides the direction in which the bench turns, and how fast,” Loeser says.

At the moment Loeser is gearing up for several important projects. He already has been featured at UW-Oshkosh in conjunction with the opening of a new student union. A major exhibition of American furniture-making will open Saturday, April 6 at the Elvehjem of Museum of Art. Loeser and Virginia Boyd, UW–Madison professor of environment, textile and design, are co-curators of this celebration of furniture design as practiced by artisans who also are painters and sculptors.

“We want to focus on the expressive nature of furniture in the context of art and architecture,” says Loeser. The exhibition will stand until June 15. UW–Madison also will host some 400 furniture-makers from across the country at the Furniture Society’s sixth annual conference June 6-8.

All these activities, however, are in the service of Loeser’s primary motive: Leaving a legacy of excellence in furniture design and construction. It is incumbent upon the functional object, a chair, say, to rise above its chair-ish identity. The designer’s mission is to make it possible for the object to live up to its full potential, a relationship shared, not coincidentally, by teacher and student.

“I give my students the fundamentals of furniture-making, the basics of construction,” he says. “I want my students to see and understand the characteristics of furniture — when they learn the rules they’re able to break them to form original, arresting pieces.”
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— Barbara Wolff, (608) 262-8292, bjwolff@facstaff.wisc.edu