Raquel Gabiola
Ainslie, ACT
Bachelor of Visual Art,
Wood/Furniture, ANU Canberra

Tansau

‘Tansau was made in 2004 in my third year of study. The carcase is solid koto (Pterygota macrocarpa) a pale West African wood. This species is easily worked and ideal for joinery, an issue of importance as the mitered and splined cabinet is small in scale (175 x 700 x 130mm) and the joinery delicate.

‘The sliding doorframes are made from laminated koto and raw silk. Incorporating silk was a successful experiment that added extra rigidity and minimised bowing to the small moving sections of the frame. The cabinet is elevated by a simple and contrasting stand made from kwila (Instia bijuga) a South East Asian hardwood.

‘The cabinet I have made is an intimate and mediative space, inspired by traditional Japanese screens. Tansau, a minimally designed cabinet, was made around the theme of housing space both physically and metaphorically, an illusionary landscape. When designing this piece I wanted to explore ideas of containment and different ways of engaging the viewer. It functionally orchestrates movement through space, where the eye is drawn to details such as the butterfly tenons then into the internal space through to the transparent colour image of woodlands. In traditional Japanese architecture one would look not upon, but within the work.’