Mathieu Lehanneur sculpts a seascape from blocks of black marble

London Design Festival 2016: French designer Mathieu Lehanneur has convincingly sculpted blocks of black marble to look like the sea for an installation at the V&A museum.

Installed inside the museum’s ornate Norfolk House Music Room, the Liquid Marble table is the latest piece in Lehanneur‘s series exploring the materiality of marble.

To mimic the rippling effect of the sea, the designer used complex 3D software.

A machine then sculpted and carved the four pieces of marble before they were joined together and hand polished to give the impression of water.

“The main challenge was to find a way to transform the complexity of this object, because I didn’t want to give my own interpretation of the sea, I didn’t want to work as a sculptor,” he told Dezeen.

“I wanted to play on this ambiguity of what is supposed to be an art piece, and what is supposed to be a design piece.”

The ocean has become a recurring theme throughout Lehanneur’s work. He has used the Liquid Marble technique to create a number of pieces, including a green-coloured pool of marble installed in the courtyard of French chateau and a sculpted aluminium table.

“I’ve always been amazed by the strong impact of the ocean, and when you’re in front of it you don’t have to talk, you’re just watching and thinking,” he said.

“The idea of this piece is trying to bring the experience that all of us have in front of the ocean into a different context”.

The Liquid Marble table is installed inside the V&A as part of the London Design Festival, which takes place from 17 to 25 September 2016.

Other installations across the capital include plant-filled pavilions by Asif Khan and a giant smile made from cross-laminated tulipwood by Alison Brooks.

Photography is by Ed Reeve.

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