Devotions
Plywood, assorted wood veneers
16 panels, 8 x 8 x 1.5 in. each
People love chairs. People love to have favorite chairs. People love to tell people that they have favorite chairs. People especially love when people know that they love iconic mid-century chairs. People love to put posters with silhouettes of such chairs on their walls. Some people love to wear shirts with silhouettes of such chairs on their chests. People love to love design. And they love to be known for loving design.
It (design) is not that serious. Except for the design of cheap, ubiquitous objects produced in the millions or billions. That is serious. The designers of the BIC pen, BIC lighter, Solo cup, Lego, Jenga, Gatorade bottle, Scotch tape dispenser, and wall-mounted soap dispenser are geniuses. Without these products, our lives would be far more tedious, messy, and boring.
Devotions is a series of laser-cut marquetry panels depicting these icons in devoted, obsessive detail. Beginning with the style of those mid-century chair illustrations, these panels elevate their subjects even further. These are not illustrations, they are paintings made with wood veneer, capturing not only the forms and colors of the designed objects, but their worldly qualities and the way that light hits them. This is craft process pushed to an extreme, depicting miniscule detail to capture the reflective effect on chrome tubing, the soft glow of plastic, or the shifting colors of wood grain.
Devotions are objects of contemplation. With their veneered back-bevel, they float towards the viewer, emitting a soft reflective glow of color on the wall like a halo. One is rewarded by staring at the detail they might not otherwise notice.
Fall into their world. Imagine the soft flow of gliding your hand across the molded plywood of Charles and Ray Eames’s LCW. Caress the perfect plastic surface of Eero Saarinen’s Tulip Chair. Feel the folds of leather on Le Corbusier’s LC2 and fall into the shadowy depths of its seat. Wrap yourself in the plastic of Verner Panton’s Panton Chair molded just for your human body. Effortlessly lift Michael Thonet’s light-as-a-feather Thonet No. 14. Rest upon the perfect chrome-supported cane seat of Marcel Breuer’s Cesca Chair. Dive into the enveloping coziness of Fritz Hansen’s Egg Chair. Bounce into the colorful world of George Nelson’s Marshmallow Sofa.
I love them I love them I love them I love them. This is my favorite chair. Whatever icon of design is the object of our reverence, let our relationship to it be devotional.