3 September 2009
By Jonathan Jackson. Photography: Chris Sataua.
John Houshmand is an artist who has spent his life in many places doing many things. It’s something that could probably be said of each of us, however his places and things are a little different than those of the average person. He has lived in the Philippians, Israel, Iran and Great Britain. He has worked in professional photography, ceramic arts in addition to being an accomplished jazz musician and sculptor. Now based in New York, his love for nature has led him to design functional art, where he has become renowned for his wood sculptures disguised as furniture.
His latest project – not including the rumor that he has been commissioned to design a desk for a head of state of one of the earth’s super powers whose name may or may not rhyme with ‘daytime drama’ – is collaborating with the Nicaraguan furniture manufacturer, Simplemente Madera, on a line of furniture to be sold in Central America and the United States.
Today Simplemente Madera is opening a new retail store on Carretera Masaya next to the Movistar building, where they will eventually sell selected pieces from the collection. There are also tentative plans to open a store called One Tree in the Soho area of New York that will feature the entire line. The idea behind the One Tree project is to show the value of one single tree by using every part of it as much as possible, including the leaves and branches.
“The cool thing here is that everything that we do and we sell up there, which is for the global market, everything is made here so the jobs, the wood comes from here, “ said Houshmand on a recent trip to Nicaragua. “The logging, all of those jobs are Nicaraguan jobs. The factory is here, the furniture makers, cabinet makers are here. Some of the pieces have metal and fabric and ideally everything will get made down here.”
