Abid Javed is a research scientist and artist who lives and works in Hackney, east London. He combines his two passions of science and ceramics to create impressive sculptural forms, ‘objets biologique’, inspired by molecular biology. He tells Busola Evans about the influences behind his unique pieces.
‘Good design is something that is simple, elegant and functionally satisfying,’ says ceramicist Abid Javed
My design vision is drawn more and more towards keeping things simple, elegant yet beautiful. Very much how nature does it so effortlessly. Beauty comes in a variety of flavours and for me it is the balance I find between the contrast in scales, positive and negative spaces, how a form occupies a space, the balance between the colours on the forms.
My inspirations are Henry Moore and Isamu Noguchi. I have been researching their work a lot for some time as I feel both share the same sensibilities and viewpoints that I do – taking nature as a starting point to generate dialogues. For me, my window is molecular biology. For them, it was directly the organic landscapes, people and natural forms. I also look back at mid-century design objects to realise how my biological knowledge and ideas can be referenced and realised into designing and making functional objects.
I am a big admirer of Alvar Aalto. His vision and sensibilities towards using wood to create beautiful objects has played some key role in how I approach my work. Also on my list are Arne Jacobsen, for those delicious curves transpired into functional design; Antoni Gaudi for his design aesthetic, especially taking the Islamic architecture elements into account and Bruno Munari – the way he talks about how we view design as art helped me shape my viewpoint on how there can be a bridge between the two fields to create art objects.
My favourite piece of design in my home is definitely my Alvar Aalto inspired stool. I just love the simplicity of it and how a natural wood material is moulded into the shape to create a simple functional object. I also love the hand-woven baskets we use for keeping clothes. The one I covet most is an Arne Jacobsen chair.
I am heavily drawn to earthy colours. At the same time, since discovering Klein blue, I have been more and more intrigued by the properties of the colour blue – its many shades and how it transforms forms and spaces.
Good design is something that is simple, intuitive, effective, elegant and functionally satisfying. As designers, it is our job to elevate and disrupt in a positive way how we use spaces and go about our daily lives. And so with good design, we are able to move forward and do things much more efficiently.
When embarking on a fresh design, I normally start with a biological structure or a theme I have encountered. This takes me to drafting several sketches around the form or forms I want to realise in 3D. I sketch out some technical notes for myself as well to help achieve the form, especially if its complex. I then take a couple of days off before I come back to the sketches and narrow them down to up to five that I will take to 3D. This is then slowly hand built until a rough shape of the object is achieved. Once slightly dry, I am then able to sculpt to the finest degree which I then set aside to fully dry before firing it high stoneware temperature and getting a finished piece.
Of all my pieces it is hard to decide a favourite but admittedly I keep coming back to the pleomorphic form P50A. It’s based on the architecture of a protein-making machinery inside a cell called the ribosome, which I studied during my PhD. So very close to the heart, subject and form.
I recently embarked on making lighting and art furniture objects. And so gradually I am focusing more and more in this area, whilst creating sculptures, in order to broaden my skills set in creating functionally beautiful objects for spaces. I am also seeking to explore materials other than clay to realise some cool, biological ideas.