Say
"research," and most people think experiments, books and papers.
But in Robert Brandt's case it may be a cabinet that looks like
a circus popcorn machine or a massive, magnificently detailed
mahogany and ebony cabinet housing rare books. Trained as a wood
sculptor, the director of the School of Architecture's furniture
design concentration has constructed nearly 100 pieces of fine
furniture since joining the faculty in 1992.
Brandt's "research" ranges from mahogany cabinets and poplar
tables to ornate maple beds and walnut chairs. With nearly every
piece, he says, he learns something new to pass on to his students:
a seamless method to apply mahogany veneer to a column, for instance,
or a "lost" traditional process of ebonizing wood with vinegar
and steel wool.
Most of Brandt's creations are functional, working furniture,
but some pieces, such as his "Tall Chair Series," are purely aesthetic
sculptural forms in the guise of furniture. The first in this
ongoing series, which now numbers around a dozen, was a visual
pun on the concept of a "tall tale." To render the theme, Brandt
elongated the chair's legs and incorporated carved wooden books
in the design of the chair's crest rail and seat.
The Notre Dame furniture maker says he especially enjoys incorporating
whimsy in his art pieces. The circus cabinet pictured here, for
instance, features stylized elephant legs and panels painted to
resemble circus posters. The top of the cabinet resembles a big-top
tent. It was done last year as a speculative piece for an art
show at Louisville's Chapman Friedman Gallery. Brandt had just
completed an intricately carved curly maple bed with ebonized
scroll work, moldings and buttons that had required more than
1,500 hours of intense labor. Afterward he felt the need to change
gears. "I wanted to take a break and have some fun," he says.
"And I thought about taking kids to the circus and what fun that
is. So I thought I'd 'go' to the circus with this piece."
The artisan's most ambitious project has been the mahogany and
ebony cabinet that houses the Hitchcock Collection of architecture
books published before 1895 and the Park List, a collection of
rare, pre-Revolutionary War books on American architecture. Begun
nine years ago, the intricately carved cabinet, which is in the
Bond Hall Rare Book Room, was finished this fall.
(October 2005)
