Marc Fish
Ethereal Desk, 2020
Sycamore, resin
H. 90 x W. 248 x D. 73 cm
H. 35 3/8 x W. 97 5/8 x D. 28 3/4 inches
H. 35 3/8 x W. 97 5/8 x D. 28 3/4 inches
Copyright The Artist
Further images
The Ethereal Desk is the most sculpturally ambitious piece in Marc Fish’s Ethereal series to date—an expressive and technically daring work that challenges the boundaries between fine furniture, sculpture, and...
The Ethereal Desk is the most sculpturally ambitious piece in Marc Fish’s Ethereal series to date—an expressive and technically daring work that challenges the boundaries between fine furniture, sculpture, and contemporary design. With its flowing contours and weightless appearance, the desk captures a sense of continuous movement, as if it were drawn in the air rather than built from timber.
Constructed using a painstaking lamination technique, the desk appears to have no beginning or end. A single ribbon of pale sycamore twists and undulates into space, looping into a fluid leg structure and rising to cradle the work surface. Its most striking feature is its asymmetry: no angle or view offers full comprehension, encouraging the viewer to walk around it, to experience it like a sculpture in the round.
Despite its visual lightness, the desk is a masterclass in structural ingenuity. The sycamore lamellae are fused with translucent resin mesh—a technique Fish pioneered to give strength to his work while introducing a near-imperceptible shimmer. The top surface, gently contoured, reveals a subtle interplay between grain, light, and curvature. The organic wave forms are not decorative flourishes but are integral to the piece's geometry and its balance—echoing patterns found in nature such as flowing water, unfurling ribbons, or the anatomy of sea creatures.
The desk defies conventional notions of what a workspace should look like. It offers no drawers, no hard edges, no strict right angles. Instead, it invites contemplation, encouraging a slower pace and a sensory engagement with its materials and forms. It is a celebration of purity in craftsmanship and innovation in design thinking.
For the discerning collector, the Ethereal Desk is more than a functional object—it is a statement piece, emblematic of Marc Fish’s unique position at the intersection of fine art and design. It encapsulates his reverence for materials, his ongoing research into sustainable practice, and his pursuit of a visual language that is simultaneously contemporary and timeless.
Constructed using a painstaking lamination technique, the desk appears to have no beginning or end. A single ribbon of pale sycamore twists and undulates into space, looping into a fluid leg structure and rising to cradle the work surface. Its most striking feature is its asymmetry: no angle or view offers full comprehension, encouraging the viewer to walk around it, to experience it like a sculpture in the round.
Despite its visual lightness, the desk is a masterclass in structural ingenuity. The sycamore lamellae are fused with translucent resin mesh—a technique Fish pioneered to give strength to his work while introducing a near-imperceptible shimmer. The top surface, gently contoured, reveals a subtle interplay between grain, light, and curvature. The organic wave forms are not decorative flourishes but are integral to the piece's geometry and its balance—echoing patterns found in nature such as flowing water, unfurling ribbons, or the anatomy of sea creatures.
The desk defies conventional notions of what a workspace should look like. It offers no drawers, no hard edges, no strict right angles. Instead, it invites contemplation, encouraging a slower pace and a sensory engagement with its materials and forms. It is a celebration of purity in craftsmanship and innovation in design thinking.
For the discerning collector, the Ethereal Desk is more than a functional object—it is a statement piece, emblematic of Marc Fish’s unique position at the intersection of fine art and design. It encapsulates his reverence for materials, his ongoing research into sustainable practice, and his pursuit of a visual language that is simultaneously contemporary and timeless.