'Forming Function' Features Tables, Lamps Made by Students

A lamp and table created by Brian Lokey, a landscape architecture student.

A lamp created by Szilvia Kadas, an art student.

A table created by Addison Bliss, an architecture student.

A table created by Jackson Cellers, a landscape architecture student.

A game table and stools created by Alex Brown, a landscape architecture student.

A glass-top table created by Barrett Barsamian, a landscape architecture student.

A lamp created by Brian Lokey, a landscape architecture student.

A lamp created by Addison Bliss, an architecture student.

A lamp and table created by Dustin Langford, a landscape architecture student.

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Lamp and table created by Brian Lokey

A new exhibition at the University of Arkansas Student Gallery features tables and lamps created with a focus on function, as well as craftsmanship and originality.

“Forming Function: Furniture Designs from the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture” will open Friday, Aug. 5, at the gallery, known as sUgAR, at 114 W. Central Ave., in Bentonville.

This exhibition showcases works designed and built by fourth- and fifth-year architecture and landscape architecture students from the Fay Jones School of Architecture and an art student from the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. These pieces were created last year in Furniture Design, a professional elective course taught by Tim LaTourette, woodshop director in the architecture school.

After drawing their design ideas in class sketchbooks, which also served as journals for ideas and process, students got feedback from LaTourette about the feasibility of each design. “I tell them I want to see what they’re thinking. If anything, they overdesign and have to go back a few steps to simplify,” he said.

Students worked on these projects for five or six weeks, often putting in time outside of class. Some of them wanted to push the limits of design. “I figure they’re going to make mistakes, and they’re going to learn from their mistakes,” LaTourette said.

The students learned techniques such as bent lamination, steam bending, coopering and veneering. Students incorporated one or more of these “somewhat advanced techniques for woodworking” into their furniture designs.

It’s common for students in the architecture school to make cardboard or basswood models of projects, but those are at a fraction of their design’s actual size. For many students, this was the first time they’d made something at full scale. “They’re a little surprised at how difficult it can be to make something so simple,” LaTourette said.

Students got the chance to use power tools and hand tools, including a table saw and milling machine. As they learned mortise and tenon joinery, they used the machines to make the initial cuts, but sometimes needed hand tools for a finer fitting.

With a visit to a Prairie Grove lumberyard, students chose their materials from regional hardwoods: walnut, cherry, ash and various oaks. They also incorporated the different colors of the wood as part of their design. “You have kind of a palette of colors with the wood,” LaTourette said. Some students chose to finish their creations with a layer of clear polyurethane.

They also learned practical things like the weight load a design will bear, the limits of a cantilever and safety aspects regarding the wiring of lamps.

Students who designed lamps considered what they would be used for and the desired mood of the lighting. But they often didn’t get to see the light function until the lamp was wired at the very end of the project.

“It adds a whole other level and a whole other language to the piece,” LaTourette said.

Many students enjoy working with their hands, he said. These students got a particular satisfaction from designing and building a piece of functional furniture, one they can keep after the class.

“It’s one thing to design on paper, but it’s another to design and build something that’s supposed to be fully functional and complete at full scale,” LaTourette said.

The “Forming Function” exhibition will be on display from Aug. 5 to Sept. 2, with gallery hours from 1-6 p.m. Fridays and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays through Aug. 20. Starting Aug. 25, gallery hours change to 2-6 p.m. Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 1-5 p.m. Sundays.

A closing reception celebrating the exhibiting artists will take place from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Sept. 2. This reception is free and open to the public.

For more information about sUgAR gallery, call 479-273-5305 or visit the gallery’s Facebook page or art.uark.edu/resources/sugar. Cambry Pierce-Duperier-Newton, the gallery’s student director, can also be reached at cpierced@uark.edu.