SOAP Table by Sabine Marcelis

The first SOAP table was made for an exhibition in the mountains. In February 2018, Etage Projects carried an off white table into a sixteenth century house in the Engadin: a single slab of cast resin, its surface worked back until it took on the soft, matte, almost soapy quality that gives the series its name. That one piece has since grown into a family of tables, desks and benches, and the series has been shown internationally with the gallery ever since.

Where resin is usually polished to a high gloss, the SOAP tables move in the opposite direction. The matte surface absorbs light rather than returning it, so the material reads as something closer to stone or soap than plastic, dense at the core and softening toward the edges. Resting directly on curved resin supports, each table is cast as a continuous material gesture rather than an assembly of parts. Every table is made to order, and the series remains open to new colours, dimensions and configurations on request.