UO Interviews: Concrete Cat
Canadian artists Shawna and Matt Heide, known professionally as Concrete Cat, started experimenting in an abandoned building on the outskirts of town in 2007; from these humble beginnings the team has grown to a group of seven who love concrete. Urban Outfitters teamed up with the collective to create new fixtures for our newly opened West Palm Beach store.
Focusing on touch and vibrant colors, Concrete Cat proves that concrete is more than buildings and roads. Their motto? "Concrete doesn't have to be Brutalist!"
Tell us a little bit about Concrete Cat and who you guys are.
Concrete Cat is an art studio that specializes in highly functional concrete art. This Montreal-based studio was founded in 2007 and is dedicated to changing the way you think about concrete.
Can you tell us about the process for creating for the UO Store environment? How does it all come together?
Colour selection is given to us by the UO team based off what they see from our previous work. From there we start building out patterns on a small scale (4"" circle) and start building up to the monolithic surfaces we make for your spaces. Once we feel that we have a good idea on what this will look like on a large scale, three of the artists start hand-applying patterns.
What about your process in general? How long does it take you to create each piece?
It's like a mix of ceramics work, paper marbling and a crazy work out. Pieces take a lot of planning and mold making, which is hard to put a timeframe on, but if we're talking about from patterning to casting that process takes 14 days. We've been in business for over 14 years so we've gotten good at working efficiently! An efficient and effective use of studio time is the only way an art studio can stay in business for the long haul!
What’s one of your favorite things to make?
We love making Lazy Susans! But it's a lot less about one specific object and a lot more about building patterns. Concrete Cat is known for our specialty the Oracle Pattern and the Lazy Susan is just a really nice size to to work with. We really love the process.
Something people might not realize about Concrete Cat?
We do everything by hand and everything in house and 99% of our raw materials are Canadian made and purchased in Canada. It's rare for a studio to be as prolific as Concrete Cat and still have ethical manufacturing based in Canada. Not many designers or manufacturers can say this. Designing and manufacturing in the same building means we design with the fabrication process in mind. This allows us to control waste and overage, as well as design things that are fun to make as well as safe and ethical.
What’s one thing that’s brought you joy recently?
We've been watching the anime "Haikyuu!!" that's about an underdog High School volleyball team in Japan, which has been a positive inspiration during some dark days. We watch a lot of anime and play a lot of video games; it's a constant source of inspiration for the work we do.