After about four months residing in the Western North Carolina environs of Asheville, I’m finely beginning to get a sense of the area’s geography. Enough so that I now know I live in the “Mountains,” while those just South across the border with SC live in the “Upstate.” The concept confused me for a bit until I realized we’re close enough to the metro area of Greenville and Spartanburg, SC to receive their local TV broadcasts—and that’s how I ultimately heard of the creative and industrious work being done by South Carolina native son Benjamin Rollins Caldwell of BRC Designs. Caldwell creates high concept pieces that straddle the divide between art and design, thus challenging us all to participate in the ongoing dialogue about a product’s “functionality.” With that in mind, Caldwell’s Slinky Table seems purposefully provocative.

The Slinky Table. Designed by BRC Designs.

A Metal Low Table That’s Soft in the Middle

Not that you’d know to look at it on your laptop (unless you watch this video), but the center of this labyrinthine metal table is supported by its own weight, thus creating its distinctive central sag. Just like those spring inchworms of yore, then, Caldwell’s Slinky moves of its own accord—all it takes is a bit of a downward push to make the square spiral bounce up and down. Critics have said that Slinky’s locomotor inclinations disqualify it as a truly functional piece, and others apparently can’t imagine a use for a table that has no flat surface (alas, where would we put our cappuccino?).

My response is that it’s not only cappuccinos (or glasses of beer, or bowls of soup) that need putting, but also books, and magazines, and the obligatory hordes of pillows that must vacate the bed every night, and assorted curios that would not suffer fatal wounds should they endure a two foot fall. The point is that creative designs call for creative usage, or perhaps no usage at all. This is to say that discussions about functionality are often a lot of fruitless strutting and fretting. Because in my book good design can hold its own with good art, and you’d never hear a painting criticized for not working so well as a coat rack. In sum, I’d happily display Caldwell’s Slinky front and center in my own home (or gallery, would I had one) and simply employ the nearest—and less interesting—surface to rest my comestibles, to baby my imbibements.