12 August 2011

In Profile: Korban Flaubert

Sydney-based design duo Janos Korban and Stefanie Flaubert create metalwork sculptures exploring order and equilibrium.

In Issue 29 of Indesign magazine, we recognised Korban Flaubert as luminaries in honour of their contribution to Australian metalwork and industrial design.

Since we last caught up with them in 2007, the designers' work has evolved and expanded, with a current focus on screens and sculpture based on mathematical principles.

"We have always been interested in the logic and interconnectedness of systems and patterns in the world," says Stefanie Flaubert.

Their screens are a perfect manifestation of this – forms based on pattern and sequence that engage the viewer through a sense of movement and dynamism.

The new range of screens takes the exploration to a more complex and graphic scale – geometric shapes brought out into 3 dimensions, giving a more sculptural feel.

"Metal is our material," says Flaubert of the designers' material of choice.

"We love its malleable workable qualities, its muscular qualities but also its liquid behaviour with light."

Korban Flaubert's expertise with metal lets them explore "the boundaries of order, the edges of equilibrium," says Flaubert.

"The aim is to keep the energy flowing between work and viewer, to draw them into the complexity of the piece."

Korban Flaubert operate out of a joint studio and workshop in Sydney's St Peters district. It's a place of experimentation and discovery.

"We don't start out with an outcome in mind," says Flaubert.

"We just explore a particular idea or dynamic and follow where it leads. We start off with paper or metal models and then move onto manipulating metal in our workshop.

"Surprise and unpredictability keep us going, take us to new areas of exploration and make our work compelling!"