French-Argentine Artist-Designer Pablo Reinoso’s Sculptures Manipulate Reality

Imagine snaking tree roots invading and taking over everyday items, pushing their way through obstacles to emerge triumphant. Nature appears to overcome inanimate objects and bring them to life, resuscitating them.

By distorting the familiar and manipulating our reality, the art of Pablo Reinoso succeeds in plunging us into a whimsical, fantastical alternate universe where things aren’t quite as they seem. By incorporating functional objects such as picture frames, chairs, benches, spades, ladders and garments in his artwork, though in mutated form, he has forced art and design to confront one another.

Artist or designer? Reinoso’s artistic oeuvre developed in parallel with his commercial practice. Starting to create innovative, playful furniture designs in the 1990s, he has since become renowned for his dramatic, stirring reinterpretations of ubiquitous and common objects. In 2000, he created a bench for the city of Fukuroi, Japan, on the outskirts of the soccer stadium that was the venue for the 2002 World Cup. His design work has the unusual ability of serving daily human necessity as well as awakening emotion. Sometimes one doesn’t know where the design stops and the art begins, as he integrates “function” into his artwork.

More info: Pablo Reinoso, Facebook (h/t: forbes)