Abstract

This collection comprises of 10 unique chair constructs developed through ‘Sustaining Desire, the Chair as Cultural, Ecological and Visual Narrative’ a 2003 AHRB Innovation Award research project lead authored by me and developed with Professor Ralph Ball (University of the Arts). The ‘chairs’ divide into three generic subgroups (1) Plastic shell stacking chair ( BlackStack, GreyStack, Polypropagation, Same Difference and Stack of One) (2) Plastic monobloc garden chair, (PlasticGold and Co-dependent (3) Office chair ( 24 Star, Starbase and Triple Back). The project investigates how reflective design articulated directly through artefacts may be used rhetorically to bring sustainable issues and a revaluing what we already have into critical focus. Using an experimental method analogous to archaeology, common chair forms metaphorically lost from awareness because of their anonymous ubiquity were, in a kind of archaeological reverse play, deconstructed to discover why they were overlooked. The resulting inventory of parts formed the basis of speculative modification and reassembly. Speculations were rigorously situated within the examined object’s specific nature and culture. This strategy generated new, highly visible chair constructs embodying clearly validated, authentic visual narratives. The collection was first exhibited at Salone de Mobile, International Furniture Fair, Milan April 2004, In 2005, 3 pieces were exhibited in le design, c’est le design Mouvements Modernes, Paris, 2 pieces alongside 5 of my earlier works in Free Radicals The Hub, Craft and Design Centre (co-exhibitors Freddie Robbins, Neil Cummings, Tom Phillips) and 2 pieces at Royal Academy, London. In 2006, prior to Sièges avec vue the collection was included with other independent works of mine and Ball’s respectively in our retrospective Poetics of the Everyday Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art. The collection was published in the International Design Yearbook 2005 (Editor, Marcel Wanders) Abitare and Art Review magazines. BlackStack purchased by Movements Modernes. 24 Star and GreyStack in permanent collection FRAC (Fonds regional d’art contemporain) France. (311)