As part of the VDF x Sight Unseen collaboration, Los Angeles studio BZippy & Co is debuting a collection of ceramic objects that measure up to half a metre tall.

The project features the newly released Castle series of planters and side tables, as well as blowing up three of the most popular product lines from the studio's ten-year history to oversized, almost architectural proportions.

"The new collection pushes the physical boundaries of our works, and asks how ceramic objects may be observed as the subject of a scene rather than an accent,” explained BZippy & Co's founder Bari Ziperstein.

Each piece is hand-built from slabs, creating monolithic silhouettes that nod to the construction of brutalist buildings.

The Castle planters and side tables resemble the shape of a simplified fortress, with a massive, cuboid body and tourette-like cylinders on all four corners.

Meanwhile, the bulbous belly of the Giant Clover Ball Planter measures almost 61 centimetres wide and sits perched on top of a thick base, shaped like a four-petaled flower.

At 58 centimetres, the Giant Cloud Planter is the tallest piece in the collection and consists of a cylinder with two ridged tiers that are carefully balanced on top of one another.

The Giant Tube series of vases also takes the simple, geometric shape of a cylinder as its base and features five distinct variations on the theme.

Here, the form is alternately compressed and elongated, adorned with oversized rims or small round pegs that resemble screws emerging from a piece of engineering.

Indeed, Ziperstei thinks about the aim of the collection in very technical terms, as wanting to expand the limits of what can fit in a kiln and survive the precarious firing process.

"We really wanted to push the scale and challenge ourselves on an engineering level," she explained.

At the same time, the collection also maintains a level of playfulness, by featuring an array of colourful glazes.

These range from the signature azure blue of French artist Yves Klein, to the shimmering, metallic shade Paladium and the newly-released, deep Chrome Green.

Ziperstei, who trained as an artist, founded the BZippy & Co. ceramics studio in 2008, in order to experiment with conceptual art practices within the traditional space of ceramic craft.

The new collection is available for purchase from the studio's website and is also being shown as part of the Offsite Online contemporary design showcase by Sight Unseen.

VDF x Sight Unseen
Exhibitor: BZippy & Co.
Project title: Giant Tube Series, Giant Clover Ball Planter, Giant Cloud Planter, Castle Planter and Side Table
Website: bzippyandcompany.com
Email: [email protected]

Renderings are by Charlotte Taylor and Victor Roussel.

Virtual Design Festival is the world's first online design festival, taking place here on Dezeen from 15 April to 30 June 2020.

Beyond curating the annual Sight Unseen Offsite showcase, Sight Unseen is a New York-based digital magazine that covers design and visual arts.

The VDF x Sight Unseen collaboration presents projects by 51 international designers as an extension of the New York platform's Offsite Online virtual exhibition.