Evan Yee is an artist, designer and welder running a project based studio in Brooklyn, New York. Often taking on collaborative work with designers, Evan designs and fabricates high end furniture and metalwork that often borders on sculpture. Not limited by field or function, Yee’s multidisciplinary expertise brings anything from conceptual art to product engineering and invention into the studio.
Evan Yee’s fine arts background has brought him to residencies such as the Rauschenberg Residency and his work to museums and galleries such as the Parish Art Museum, The Hole Gallery and Wallplay. His conceptual art installations include his show “The App Store”, a contemporary critique of modern technology, and a collaborative show called “The Museum of Capitalism” in Oakland California. Often, Yee’s work is iconic the times, allowing viewers to shift their perspective and reflect upon global cultural phenomena.
Guild Garden Table and Chair
In 2015 I found myself working closely with a number of furniture makers and woodworkers. Together we embarked on a mission to build a unique industrial and creative space to host skilled members of the maker community. We called it Liberty Labs Foundation. As of today, our collective studio has been host to an international community of skilled craftspeople, designers, architects and artists.
My background is in the arts, but since Liberty Lab’s inception I’ve been deeply influenced by my peers in the contemporary design world. Their work blurs the line between furniture and fine arts. I often see designs from our studio that bend the meaning of utilitarian. A chair made out of mortise and tenon wooden balls, woven metal stair railings and cast iron chairs are just a few examples.
Being among some of the finest craftspeople has taught me to hone my own abilities. My artwork being primarily in metal and among woodworkers, my skills were immediately in demand. My art practice suddenly took a back seat to fabrication as everyone around me needed custom metal work. Every table base, chair frame, custom machined screw, pushed my metalworking practice to new heights and precision.
Now, eight years later, I feel like my art, fabrication and design practice are inseparable. I believe that a chair has as much to say as a painting, a custom turned brass screw just as beautiful as any sculpture. When I began fabricating, I felt I was neglecting my art practice. Instead, I look back and feel like I was freed of needing to call something I made “art”. Today it might be a chandelier, tomorrow a sculpture, the next day a miniature brass log cabin.
Making the Guild Garden pieces feels like the culmination of these merged practices. They had to be outdoors, on gravel and fairly lightweight, but not so lightweight that they blow over. The chairs had to be comfortable, but not need cushions and yet accommodate all body types. The tables needed enough space for three to four chairs. All this, and they had to all be taken inside when not in use, to fit inside a seven-foot by three-and-a-half foot broom closet.
I also felt the urge to create something that echoed Guild Hall’s iconic architecture and was immediately drawn to the unique quatrefoil-like windows, and the three arches. While paying homage to some of the historical architectural motifs, I also felt the chairs and tables needed to be something contemporary in lieu of the massive re-envisioning of Guild Hall.
The resulting design is stainless steel. While a heavy material, it allows for an airy design and thus a substantial yet light chair. It’s also perfect for outdoors. Being the optimal metal in commercial kitchens and on boating hardware, it doesn’t need a coating to resist rust, and it’s easy to keep clean and maintain. For concise storage, both the chairs and tables easily stack.
What sets the Guild Garden Chair and Table apart is the use of metal mesh. Meticulously, each wire of the mesh is welded down to create a light frameless look that stays tight and springy for a comfortable seat, but also a sturdy table surface. The mesh also reveals a glimpse of the table’s quatrefoil strut design, mimicking the mullions on the windows.
No matter what I decide to make, I am very intimate with the entire process. So, every bend, curve and weld on these chairs and tables was done by my hand. Doing this work in-house allows me to experiment with unconventional material combinations and new welding methods. This run of 18 chairs and 6 tables for Guild Hall brags 14,000 welds connecting the mesh wires to the frames.
I am honored to have these pieces part of Guild Hall’s permanent outdoor setting. With them, I aspire to elevate this historical gathering space and provide a foundation for the community to seat and converse, drink coffee and muse. When seated around these tables I hope one can enjoy this labor of love while basking in Mary Woodhouse’s vision to create an innovative environment to foster creativity within all who step inside Guild hall’s doors.
Photo: Lizzie Brooks-Yee
About Liberty Labs Foundation
Liberty Labs Foundation is a collective studio of independent designers, artists, architects and highly skilled artisans. We are located in the historic Liberty Warehouse, once home to the Statue of Liberty before it was installed in New York Harbor in 1886. Our goal is to host makers with a variety of backgrounds in order to foster their independent practices in a collaborative and constructive environment.
In 2015, Liberty Labs was Founded by John Koten alongside co-founders Reed Hansuld, Pat Kim, Joel Seigle, Evan Yee and Tom Breglia. John saw particular talent in this young crew of makers that evolved into a vision of a collective studio. Together they embarked on a mission to build a unique industrial and creative space to host skilled members of the maker community.
Members of Liberty Labs Foundation foster relationships deeper than that of most co-workers. They are friends, and yet a family bound by similar interests and enriched by individual specialities. While members work independently, collaboration is the heart of our studio. Past members consistently remain a part of the Liberty Labs creative community. Since its inception, Liberty Labs has hosted an international community of designers, artists and makers. Every person who has been a part of the space contributes to the collective soul that that imbues our studio. With every new member comes a new background, a new expertise and a new perspective that defines the evolution of what Liberty Labs Foundation is.
LibertyLabsFoundation.com @LibertyLabsFoundation