The Luar show held during New York Fashion Week in February was headline-grabbing for several reasons. Not only was Beyoncé sitting in the front row – clad in a shimmering silver get-up that made her look like a cowboy who had descended from another world – but the models walked through a set that could be seen as both a chic living room and a kinky pleasure palace where a safe word was needed.
The sculptor and furniture designer Rich Aybar
Hanging from the ceiling was a lamp that resembled a butt plug, below it a curved stool named “the love seat”. It was the work of the sculptor and furniture designer Rich Aybar, 40, founder of RA Workshop, who gives the term “rubber specialist” a whole new meaning.
The self-taught artist has been using the material to envision abstract furniture designs since 2019, crafting all his pieces in translucent amber. It started when he was working as part of Hood By Air, the experimental fashion label led by Shayne Oliver that exploded onto the New York scene in the late 2000s. “I was always working in this abstract capacity – narrative storytelling, image-making,” Aybar says, calling me from his second home on the outskirts of Paris. When the brand was opening a new production facility in Istanbul, Oliver asked Aybar to go and be a liaison between HBA and those working in a factory. “I was translating these complicated tech packs and people were, for sure, dumbfounded by some of the things we were asking for,” he says. The experience of working with limited resources to enhance the brand’s visual storytelling gave Aybar a sense of possibility in the power of creation. “You have a raw material and an idea on paper, then you force the material into something that didn’t exist before. That was very powerful to me.”
from left: Sounding Lamp; Aybar with his rubber vases
It led Aybar to think about materials he had only experienced in specific contexts and how he could repurpose them in new, never-before-seen ways. “I got really interested in rubber. I’d seen people wear it on the [clubbing and BDSM] scene and also seen it used in a functional way in hospitals. It’s so viable but there was so much more you could do with it.” At first he found it difficult to find companies interested in creating large-scale moulds in unexpected shapes using rubber – “but the challenge excited me”. The quest first led him from Berlin, where he began to practise building miniature sculptures with foam, to LA and Orlando, where he was introduced to a fabrication house that had just finished a huge project with Disney. It was the first place that agreed to work with Aybar to create his debut pieces. “I didn’t realise at first that there are all these exothermic reactions that happen with the rubber when you’re working with it. But there are materials you can use to counteract this effect. Like, specific kinds of silicone make it a material that you can then use in the way that I do, which is for furniture.”
Aybar with his dog, Salsa, on his Don Punee sofa
His first pieces were unveiled during Art Basel Miami in a quaint hair salon in Little Haiti. They included semi-opaque lamps, industrial-looking rocking chairs and a water fountain trailed with a series of breasts at the basin. Despite the pieces’ hard exteriors, Aybar likened their shapes to jellies and candies – just as inviting as diving headfirst into a bag of Werther’s Originals.
Originally, Aybar was inspired by shapes that originated in Mesoamerica thanks to the Olmecs, who first put rubber to use; later he began to explore our sexual connection to the material. “I was really struck by the lack of rubber in the design world,” he says. “I wonder if it’s because of the historical, colonial implications that rubber has. But there is a sense of dissonance behind the way we think about rubber. Why do we not use it more? It’s beautiful and so human-friendly. And we use it so flagrantly in the way that we comfort ourselves intimately.”
To underline our familiarity with the material, he crafted pieces in shapes that could be deemed taboo, with names like “the rim stool” – a “hefty, sculpted, industrial seat that provides secure and steady comfort” for, well, you know what. “If the proportions are bigger, are they more valid in society? Can it be presented, or are they something that you have to put away when you have guests? Does the scale change the implication of the shape?”
He continues: “There’s a tactile quality to the furniture. These reasons made me want to highlight a little bit more of a sexual aspect to it. Another thing was that after I made my first collection, I realised how heavy this material was and how costly using a lot of it was. I wanted to experiment with hollowing it out and seeing how much structural integrity I could retain while using less material. This is where the idea of the rimming chair came in. Because functionally, there has to be a space to put the head in, so there has to be a cavity underneath. But at the same time, it has to be able to completely support the person who is sitting on it.”
Today, Aybar splits his time between Paris and New York, where he has a studio in the Financial District that overlooks the Brooklyn Bridge. The space is covered with his rubber works, which glow when bathed in the afternoon light that floods through the windows. Having grown up in the city, he has found that his relationship with his hometown has changed over the years. “It feels less effervescent. I don’t know, it’s gone through different phases. When I was younger, I felt like there was something more heritage about New York. It felt more gritty, like subcultures existed. When you said, ‘I’m going to Orchard Street,’ it was for a specific purpose, to get a leather jacket, you know? Or, ‘I’m going to Eighth Street, I’m going to go get shoes.’ All these different villages had more significance to them. You would go to the party, then there was a guy who was rolled up in a carpet and his whole thing was for you to step on him. These parties in these lofts in Brooklyn. New York does not feel like that any more. Although I heard that the rug guy has come out again. New York has more of a global city vibe now. But my family’s there. So I get to see my dad and my siblings more casually and that’s a big draw. And again, I really love my studio. It’s nice to be in the Financial District and have this play space. There are a lot of other artists there too. It’s a good community to be a part of.”
The sculptor’s studio in New York’s Financial District
He begins each day by taking his giant schnauzer, Salsa, for a walk down the waterfront – “My place is two blocks away from the studio, but that’s not long enough for a big dog” – and, having largely put his partying days behind him, has been enjoying the city’s growing literary scene of an evening. “People have been going for readings. It’s a strange phenomenon, a café culture. They’re totally mobbed when you get there, you can barely get in the door.”
When he has not got his head down in the studio, he likes to travel, having recently visited Egypt, Florence and Venice, where everything from art created in Nubia to vintage antiques sourced in Murano have provided inspiration for future projects. At the moment, he’s set on creating tableware, knives and forks included – “Using rubber, a material that is not very prevalent, [makes me] want to get it in more people’s hands.” On top of that, there’s a whole host of custom commissions in the pipeline. As for whether Beyoncé has put in her order for a butt-plug-shaped lamp, that’s yet to be confirmed…
Aybar on his open-ended rubber Chat table
Photography by Matthew Priestly.
Taken from 10 Men Issue 60 – ECCENTRIC, FANTASY, ROMANCE – is out now. Order your copy here
