Artful Chairs

Art and furniture design have been closely linked for a very long time (e.g. Rietveld’s ‘Mondrian’ chair, or Dali’s ‘Mae West’ installation featuring a sofa in the shape of lips). The permeability of the two cultures goes beyond referencing each other, and has become innate.

Here are a few examples of creative cross-contamination…

 

 Maarten Baas’ ‘Plain’ collection of painted clay furniture has skinny, uneven and wobbly limbs, much like the painted bronze sculptures of Giacometti.

Ron Arad’s ‘Spring’ collection has the bright colors, rounded shapes and cartoonishness of Keith Haring’s street to gallery art.

Much like Theo Jansen’s moving sculptures, Zanotta’s ‘Reale’ table seems like it might go strolling down the beach with only the wind in its structure. 

Comic book clouds are printed in small dots on the top of Nendo’s ‘Cloud’ table, which is reminiscent of the pop-art works of Roy Lichtenstein (in a quiet Japanese sort of way). 

You can somewhat recreate the reflective nymphea-like effect of Buren’s Grand Palais installation in your living room, thanks to Nendo’s ‘Pond’ tables which even include the artist’s famous stripe (although not at 8.7cm wide).

Made of hundreds of little rings stuck together to create the shell of a piece of furniture, the pieces of the ‘Engineering Temporality’ collection by Tuomas Markunpoika Tolvanen bare a strong resemblance with the works of Tara Donovan, who covers large walls with polystyrene cups, metal rings or cut straws to impactful, organic effect.

With functionality being the only separating factor, Duchamp and Castiglioni’s ready-mades directly correlate to each other. Castiglioni assembles three pieces to create a seat, while Duchamp adds a wheel to a seat to create art.

Moroso’s ‘Muebles Amorosos’ armchair looks like it’s evolved from Sol Lewitt’s primordial soup. 

By Claire Toussaint

Furni(cou)ture

The devil is in the details, and in this case it’s wearing Prada.

 Certain furniture designers are using subtle fashion-inspired features to add a bit of sophistication to a simple design.   

Updating the clasp design from a vintage handbag, Mathieu Gustafsson classes up a plain white cabinet without going all ‘Cornelio Cappelini’. 

 ‘Dear Disaster’ by Jenny Ekdahl was designed for the user to be able to create wave patterns on its surface, but ends up looking more like the disaster-mess of a sequin dress after a night out.  

Looks like those massive chunky knits strutted right off the autumn/winter catwalks and into the living room; complete with a ribbed texture and raglan seams. Designer Aga Brzostek’s fashion industry background came directly into play in the making of the ‘Autumn/Winter’ chair.

 Spanish designer Ornella Stocco has created porcelain ‘statement’ joints for her modular furniture design. Like a big bright necklace on a neutral outfit, these connection pieces become the main focus.

Korean designer Dong-Yeop Han has created a cabinet closed by the toggles from a duffle-coat in a n effort to keep your belongings warm and cozy.

Dubbed the ‘Home Traveler’, this giant handbag on feet by Anne Lorenz is portable enough to move from one of the part of the house to another, but not to leave the house. Definitely in our top 10 to never not leave the house without.

Inspired by the silhouette of a stiletto, the ‘Heel’ chair by Nendo has a dainty feminine sophistication that make my toes feel sore just thinking about it.

By Claire Toussaint

Subtly Creepy

We all know there are some scary looking products and furniture out there (e.g. Campana brother’s Edra beds or anything Ross Lovegrove); it comes with the territory of pushing boundaries, changing aesthetics, and making people think. 

There is another class of works of design though that slowly and subtly starts to make you uncomfortable when you are left alone in a room with them, or suspiciously appear in dreams right before they become nightmares.  These projects may be beautiful, clever, interesting, and even downright good for your health; there is still something undeniably unsettling about being in/near or wearing them.

Creepiness being a very subjective quality, the following may not have the same effect on you as yours truly. Here are few examples that although they don’t make my skin crawl, definitely make it goose-bump slightly:  

Hiroshima studio Tsukano Architect Office did not like the views from this lot in Miyazaki, so they replaced them with a plain white wall. Although the wall is reflective enough to create nicely day-lit interiors, there is a post-apocalyptic feel like the whole house has been swallowed by the Blob, or is in the midst of being raptured.  

Zaha Hadid’s ‘Aria’ pendant light is a very graceful shape which beautifully dispersed light; but I wouldn’t stand too close for fear of being swallowed up by it in a swift spider-like motion. Especially in a group, these lights could certainly be featured on their own planet in a sci-fi flick.

‘Shivering bowls’ is a project designed by Nendo in response to a commission by the Triennale Design Museum of Milan to do with the idea of Eros. These thin silicone bowls are meant to invoke desire, as the viewer should uncontrollably want to touch them.

The bowls are so thin that a slight breeze causes them to shiver (see video below), and (I would imagine) the last person leaving the museum to shudder and look over their shoulder on the way out. 

The ‘Darwin’ coffee table was designed by gene-mapping the DNA of one Giulia Wolthuis, creating patterns with specifically designed software. Although this is a very innovative and fascinating process, it somehow feels like some kind of genetic ethics law is being breached. The shiny white lacquer covered in glass like a lab section probably doesn’t help. Below, the gene-donor and her table-clone. 

 Yves Behar’s latest contribution to the Jawbone brand is a wristband that the user keeps on at all time (24/7: in bed, in the shower, everywhere, all the time), that monitors how they eat, sleep and move. I’m no conspiracy theorist, but this a little ‘Brave New World’ even for me… There is also something about the semi-faceted, rubbery surface of the bracelet that is maybe a little too futuristic sci-fi thriller.   

Made for slabs of oddly frosted resin in muted pastel colors, the ‘Haze’ collection by Wonmin Park has a little bit of a ‘killed in a terrible accident involving an ice-cold body of water and came back to haunt you’ feel.

The ‘Traffic’ armchair by Konstantin Grcic for Magis features an intricate wireframe base wrapped around the seat, back and arm cushions. I realize I’ve been on a bit of a murder kick at the moment, but if this doesn’t say ‘torture apparatus’ I don’t know what does!

by Claire Toussaint