High School Lover Bench by Sashaxsasha and Apollinaria Broche

High School Lover is a new take on the studio’s classic SSB01 bench. In place of MDF, this piece is crafted from solid oak because of its weight, warmth, and sense of permanence. The key inspiration behind the piece is a school desk—an object that keeps the memories and marks of those who used it. The name High School Lover is a nod to Coppola’s music video for Playground Love by Air, where a piece of chewing gum becomes the unexpected protagonist, journeying through various scenes and even performing the song. sashaxsahsa worked in collaboration with their friend and artist Apollinaria Broche to add their version of living chewing gums to the bench. Apollinaria pierced the bench with hand-sculpted aluminium details—each piece an imprint of teenage past time. Some elements resemble stickers reminding of how we used to cover desks and notebooks with them, while a cast of a toy snake recalls the prank of hiding one inside a desk to startle teachers. True to its high school spirit, the piece didn’t stay pristine for long. sashaxsasha, Apollinaria and two of their friends went to spend a weekend in Normandy, where they engraved the bench’s surface, much like a school desk gets filled with notes and scribbles over time. School is where we ask our first big questions, feel things with unfiltered intensity, and become, briefly, our truest selves. High School Lover invites us back to that fleeting sense of mischief, discovery, and the thrill of getting away with something.