Regal Matters

In Majorca, artist Sara Regal explores the potential of industrial waste as an artistic medium. She shapes scattered fragments into sculptural pieces, oscillating between construction and deconstruction. Her process, both slow and intuitive, draws on local vernacular craftsmanship and the complexity of the modern era, where heritage and change engage in dialogue. A manifesto of resistance to overproduction and global standardisation.

Random reliefs, abstract shapes, imperfect materials, raw and mineral textures: with her series Residue: Soft Remains, Sara Regal repurposes construction waste into a range of unusual seats. Their deliberately ambiguous ergonomics blur the boundaries between function and sculpture. Unveiled last June in fashion designer Cécilie Bahnsen’s studio during the Three Days of Design event in Copenhagen, this work is part of an experimental and upcycling approach that lies at the heart of her practice.

“I layered various pieces of panels and insulation like the layers of a cake. Then I shaped each one, playing with the forms and effects of the material: some very raw, keeping the scraps as they were, others more textured with wood fibre or cork,” she explains. The whole thing is coated with a high-resistance spray paint, which freezes the irregularities in place.

Her taste for experimentation and the reuse of materials is nothing new. Originally from Galicia, Sara Regal studied industrial design and then worked in London in furniture design. “Gradually, I moved towards the artistic world with an environmental and experimental awareness of materials,” she recalls. But it was at ECAL, the art and design school in Lausanne, that she deepened this approach through the prism of recycling, particularly during her artistic residency at the Hong Kong Design Institute. “In a hyper-consumerist society where every square metre counts, waste management becomes almost second nature. There, residents compress waste into small cubes, which they transport and collect at collection points to form large blocks for processing. This ingenious system made me aware of the life cycle of a product, from its raw materials to the end of its life.”

The artist has been living on the island of Majorca in the Balearic Islands for eight years, in the village of Inca – the former cradle of shoe manufacturing in Spain, where Camper still has its headquarters. It was there that she began working for the brand while developing her first creations.

“I made small objects from off-cycle polystyrene that I obtained from a local recycling plant. I went there to observe the process in order to give them a new lease of life.” The designer has since set up her own business and moved into a larger workshop in a former factory. She has found Mallorca to be the ideal setting for learning about traditional crafts: basket weaving, ceramics of all kinds, blown glass, tiles, bricks and traditional lime plasters are all sources of inspiration for her. “I like to transpose these techniques onto new materials. Two years ago, I designed the MMLM series using natural insulation materials from Majorca – recycled wood fibres and cork. I deconstructed them, mixed them with binders and pigments, to create an entirely new material.”

The strength of her work lies in objects and pieces of furniture with heightened materiality that inhabit interiors designed by architects and designers such as Mesura, Isern Serra, Gabriel Escámez and El Departamento. Represented by the VASTO gallery in Barcelona, Sara Regal will take part in a collective design exhibition in November, curated by its founder, Carmen Riestra. •

photos : Residue Soft Remains series, Sara Regal © María Baños