Style No. 25748542; Color Code:

Artist Cyprien Chabert is haunted by the idea of lost paradise - forgotten and fantasized about. He recreates these worlds through his work, like this show- stopping table, carved from an erstwhile ping pong table. Chabert was inspired by the Polynesian island of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, and its "birdman" ritual, an annual event in which competitors would swim through shark-infested waters to a nearby islet to collect the season's first eggs of the Sooty Tern and return it to their sponsor on the island. The winner was crowned birdman for one year; the ritual died out in the late 19th century. Chabert uses the exotic symbolism of Easter Island to represent the complex nature of man's relationship with nature and the ecological challenges faced by modern societies and cultures.