By the close of the 1980s, Ron Arad had cemented a reputation as an exceptional designer well-known for his post-industrial works based on appropriation and the ready-made, such as the Rover chair and Concrete Stereo. But his Volume series, begun in 1989, featuring a refined and previously unseen strength of sculptural expression, symbolizes an important shift into the expression of sculptural form, laying the groundwork for his landmark accomplishments of the next twenty years.

Sketch by Ron Arad.

Rolling Volume, like many of Arad’s earliest Volume works, incorporates traditional industrial materials and retains his characteristic brutalist approach to construction. It is his formal treatment however, in this case deliberately elegant and graceful, which re-contextualizes these works.  The designer’s eye, critical of the designed ‘object’, is apparent in these, but his intentions to focus on form are clear. Tipping his hand in the title, Arad places primary emphasis on the chair’s spatial properties. The simplified welded steel construction serves only to refocus our attention on the work’s morphology. Internally weighted, the chair and its integral seat are angled upward  visually creating the energy of an object in motion, while also providing a challenge to the potential sitter thereby further distancing the user from the chairs functionality. Once the form is established and volume is assigned, the work is finished. There is no discussion or consideration of surface, of decoration. Here, Arad reassigns his furniture form as sculpture, as a work of art.