BENDING TIME

Nathan Yong’s collection of stone art titled ‘Farewell to Reason’ reflects the artist and designer’s search for irreverence, simplicity, and beauty

- LUO JINGMEI

In the marketing photographs of KSY/ Nathan Yong’s new art collection, refined onyx and granite objects with flowing lines juxtapose against colossal blocks of rough-hewn stone in the setting of a quarry, some marked with the casual scribbling of their names and sizes. It is precisely this contrast — of material and poetry, rawness, and completeness — that fascinates.

The seven pieces straddle design and art, representing a new chapter in Yong’s oeuvre that tips from purely furniture design into the art sphere, which he has distinguished with the use of his mandarin birthname Kok Seng. Initially conceived for the ‘Eclectism’ collection launched by IndustryPlus, the pieces now sit in the design brand’s new showroom in Henderson Road as its first exhibition, presented in conjunction with Archifest. The collection comprises a furniture, barstool, bench, chair, table, shelf, low stool, and table object, made from state-of-the-art stone bending technology.