JASON KEHDI
Furniture
Detroit-based designer and craftsman Jason Kehdi began his studies on the pre-engineering track and was formally trained in 2D and 3D design and drafting before switching his direction to transportation design and then finally settling in Studio Furniture. His works focus on using materials from industry along with recycled scrap and fall off sourced from the cities manufacturing complex, giving them a new life as his source of raw material. With his work he strives to create furniture and objects that inspire the feeling of the sublime that landscapes and architecture often stir. Kehdi will be receiving his B.F.A. from the College for Creative Studies in Studio Furniture. In the summer of 2017, he was the resident artist at the Antiochian Village in western Pennsylvania. He has been in several group shows such as Lay, Lie at the U245 Student Gallery in 2018 and Radical Furniture at Popps Emporium in 2019. He currently works as a craftsman at GANAS MFG in Detroit.
Email: jason.kehdi@gmail.com
Website: jasonkehdi.myportfolio.com
Instagram: @craftsmankehdi
L Form Lounge Chair, 2019
Walnut, Steel & Aluminum
28 x 23 x 30”
L Form Lounge Chair, 2019
Walnut, Steel & Aluminum
28 x 23 x 30”
L Form Lounge Chair, 2019
Walnut, Steel & Aluminum
28 x 23 x 30”
Lunar City, 2019
Birch ply, Steel & Marble
22 x 22 x 22”
Lunar City, 2019
Birch ply, Steel & Marble
22 x 22 x 22”
Catacomb, 2019
Brick, MDF, Particle Board & Forbo
8 x 8 x 12.5”
Zores, 2020
Brick, MDF, HDF, Particle Board, Rubber, Melamine & Forbo
32 x 32 x 8”
JASON KEHDI
As an artist I have found two ways of working that I bounce back and forth between to complete each work. The first is to plan the idea. To create a highly designed object with a 3D model or draw it to scale, finalizing proportion and form. From there my second direction of making begins. I gather all the necessary materials I will need to complete my design. This step is most important. I source 80% of my materials from scrap I have collected, or I go searching for. I find recycled materials carry a patina and character unmatched in brand-new supplies. From there the construction begins as I shift back and forth between holding the original design and improvising details, all the while, intuitively responding to the material’s inherent qualities.
My current body of work focuses on the unity of architectural form and nature through the vehicle of furniture. I wish to articulate an unknown future or civilization that allows its structures and furnishings to be defined by its surroundings, taking lessons from the natural world. Because this place does not exist yet, except possibly only in my mind. I develop its cultural heritage and its use of form which originate from nature along with my love of futurism, architecture, Legos and the Star Wars series. My objective for the viewer aligns parallel with the objective of romanticism, to provoke the feeling of the sublime. To draw the viewer into a new world by narrowing their visual perspective into mine.