Piera & Pablo Design

Artist Statement

NATURE GIRL MEETS ROBOT BOY. She was a girl from the city who cherished every fruit and flower she saw, he was a boy from the country who made robots with his bare hands. They met in Providence while both in pursuit of mastering furniture. They could not have been more different. She never measured, flowed and felt her way through materials and processes. He was precise, he prototyped, he was always 12 steps ahead of every problem. She taught him to draw deep from the creative well she saw inside of him, he helped her clarify and realize the things that floated around her head. Together they created what neither of them could have made without the other.

Piera Bochner and Pablo Ejarque-González path's crossed while pursuing their master's degrees in Furniture Design at Rhode Island School of Design. Bochner came to RISD from New York with a background in art and art history and Ejarque came all the way from Valencia, Spain bringing with him a knowledge of engineering and mass production. They found that although their experiences and approach to design could not be more different, their ability to collaborate and compliment each other's skills allowed them to push their creative boundaries into new realms of design. Through a shared love of strangeness, nature, craft, and functionality they make objects intended to uphold classic typologies while quietly transcending the expected.

FLOWER BED is a daybed for dreaming of spring. The leather upholstery has been hand-dyed with early spring flowers and leaves collected from the gardens of Providence. The process involves arranging the flora upon prepared cow hide, then tightly rolling and steaming the leather to permanently imprint the natural pigments. This leaves behind a completely natural and unique floral pattern. The legs of the day bed are like tree trunks, assembled from wood scraps of sycamore and ash, then turned by hand on the lathe. Each wood leg adheres to a standardized proportion that is enlarged at the base to enhance the stability of the structure, while tapering to a reduced diameter at the top in order to seamlessly connect with the underside of the daybed. The legs are designed for removability via threaded rods, allowing for reassembly into a scattered randomized pattern or an alternate symmetrical configuration. While laying on FLOWER BED one can trace the purple hues of grape hyacinths and the spiky leaves of Japanese maples and remember the brief beauty of May.

Biography

Piera Bochner was born and raised in New York City by two artist parents. Unlike her sister who went on to be a lawyer, Bochner followed in her parent’s footsteps and pursued art. She received a National Gold Medal from the Scholastic Arts and Writing competition in highschool, and went on to study Sculpture and Art History at Oberlin College. She spent six years working at the prestigious fine arts printmaking studio Two Palms Press, working on experimental print projects with major artists like Chris Ofili, Cecily Brown, Richard Prince, and Stanley Whitney.

Her love of color and casting manifested in a line of sculptural candles molded from fruits and vegetables collected from shops and produce stands around New York. The candles were each a unique combination of colors, a monoprint of sorts, that attempted to preserve the ephemeral beauty of nature while honoring its cycle of decomposition through taking the form of a candle.
Her candles have been featured in the New York Times, T Magazine, Vogue, Architectural Digest, Sight Unseen, and Bon Appetit and sold in stores worldwide. She successfully ran her candle-making business for five years before deciding to pursue a Master's degree in Furniture Design at RISD.

Pablo Ejarque-González is a Spanish designer based in Brooklyn. He seamlessly merges a technical foundation in Industrial Design Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) with the avant-garde experimentation of an MFA in Furniture Design from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). This fusion of precise engineering and innovative fine arts endows him with a distinctive perspective on contemporary design, where technical rigor meets artistic exploration.
In 2016, Pablo was the recipient of the prestigious CASEU Erasmus Mundus European award allowing him to spend a year at the Al-Farabi National University in Almaty, Kazakhstan where he was in charge of the design and development of several robots and mechanical components.
With more than 5 years working as Product Design Manager in a contract furniture manufacturing company, he has been in charge of the design, production development and installation of hundreds of pieces. He has managed numerous furniture installations for hotels, restaurants, and ships across Europe, working with globally recognized clients such as Radisson and Hilton. Additionally, he has co-signed several product patents in partnership with clients.
Pablo’s work has been showcased in international shows, including ICFF/Wanted Design Manhattan, Design X Rhode Island & FITUR.
Pablo understands design as the place where art meets function.

Flower Bed_2024_Hand dyed leather, upholstery foam ash and sycamore wood_60 x 27 x 17 inches
Hand dying leather process_2024_Hand dyed leather, upholstery foam ash and sycamore wood_60 x 27 x 17 inches
Flower Bed_2024_Hand dyed leather, upholstery foam ash and sycamore wood_60 x 27 x 17 inches
Hand dyed leather_2024_Hand dyed leather, upholstery foam ash and sycamore wood_60 x 27 x 17 inches
Flower Bed_2024_Hand dyed leather, upholstery foam ash and sycamore wood_60 x 27 x 17 inches
Pablo Ejarque-González working at the lathe_2024_Hand dyed leather, upholstery foam ash and sycamore wood_60 x 27 x 17 inches
Piera Bochner hand dying leather_2024_Hand dyed leather, upholstery foam ash and sycamore wood_60 x 27 x 17 inches