Cylindra objects
Design: 1986-
Manufactured by: Cylindra
Sculptural furniture
Although barrel manufacturing enjoys a long tradition in Norway, barrels for storing herrings have been made obsolete by plastic containers and freezers.
In 1984, a small company that manufactures barrels asked Peter Opsvik to look at the possibility of developing furniture using their know-how as barrel manufacturers.
Opsvik chose to abandon the barrel form, and proposed gluing staves into straight cylinders of various dimensions, and these wooden cylinders made it possible for him to express form more freely than he had been able to with earlier furniture objects.
In contrast to Peter Opsvik's earlier work, where ergonomics took highest priority, he gives his imagination free rein with his sculptural furniture.
The Cylindra objects can tell a story, they can move you mentally and offer experiences that affect your behaviour. For example:
''Passion": a perfect start to an evening might be when you serve your guests a welcoming drink from a cupboard which forms a kiss when you close it.
"Mountain peaks" is inspired by the mountains of western Norway.
Two years' work on this culminated in the exhibition "Tre dimensjoner - skulptur eller møbel" "Three dimensions – Sculptor or Furniture" at the Museum of Applied Art in Oslo, Summer 1986.
On the occasion of the 1996 Bergen Music Festival, the West Norway Museum of Applied Art invited Peter Opsvik to display these objects and other works in wood.
Exhibition, Museum of Applied Art, Oslo, 1986
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About Gallery Cylindra
The previous barrel and furniture company is now housing the unique Gallery Cylindra.
In the newly renovated Gallery, you are invited to enter a journey of thought and imagination in the borderland between pure functionality and creative playfulness. The unique Cylindra products designed by Peter Opsvik, are world-renowned, and draw inspiration both from the nature of Western Norway as well as the creative emotional life of humans.