Friedman Benda presents Bleached II by Erez Nevi Pana

Bleached II is Israeli designer Erez Nevi Pana’s continuation of a body of work that explores the consequences of mineral extraction at the Dead Sea. For these new furniture designs, Nevi Pana has submerged aluminum structures encased in luffa into the highly saline water of an industrial evaporation pond at the Dead Sea Works plant. Twenty million tons of salt sink to the bottom of the pond every year, a byproduct of the production of potash and bromine. Immersed in the water, Nevi Pana’s pieces naturally become encrusted in crystallized salt, providing a reimagining of possible constructive outcomes of humanity’s interference with nature, all the while exploring the convergence of the organic and the ornate.