"Sit on it!"

(the title refers to my favorite "Happy Days" catch-phrase from way back in the day)

“Since you sit in a chair, it immediately becomes an intimate object, one that you constantly test by sitting…” -- Wendell Castle

I think chairs are something we probably all take for granted and are certainly under-appreciated as both functional and as art. Today my husband and I saw some pretty cool chairs – some that I could see owning and using myself, whereas others are probably better as eye candy.

The chairs we saw are part of an exhibit called “When Attitudes Become Chairs” at the Pizzuti Collection in downtown Columbus. We’re lucky they decided to hold over this exhibit as it was originally only going to be there until the end of January I think. Perhaps all the horrible winter weather kept away the crowds, so maybe that influenced the decision.

According the Pizzuti Collection website, “In recent years the world of furniture design has been completely transformed. Once a fairly restrictive field in which form tended to follow function, it is today one of the most dynamic of all creative disciplines. Across a wide range of approaches – sometimes powered by new technology, sometimes simply by their imaginations – artists and designers alike are dramatically expanding the possibilities for furniture. This exhibition focuses exclusively on cutting-edge chair forms, including works by Ron Arad, Wendell Castle, Shiro Kuramata, Humberto and Fernando Campana, and Gaetano Pesce, Donald Judd and John Chamberlain; as well as Joris Laarman, whose high-tech and high-concept designs are shown in particular depth.” 

These were the first two chairs we saw – both of which look like someone took the frame of a papasan and glued various stuffed animals to it. Still, I bet they’re both pretty comfy and given the chance I wouldn’t have minded trying them out for comfort.

This was my favorite chair as a piece of art:

This was my favorite set of chairs as practical, but definitely not comfy. I could see these fitting right in inside one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses.

Here's a photo of the chairs with the matching table (from the exhibit guide I bought):

The back-story of these chairs according to the gallery guide I bought says, “In the early 1970s, Donald Judd began to design furniture, at first a wooden bed and a sink, for his loft in Soho. He returned to the discipline a few years later when establishing himself at Marfa, Texas, where ‘there was no furniture and none to be bought, either old or new.”

 

If I had my choice of chairs to actually sit in and use, these would be my two choices:

I like this one for the colors and the fact that I'm small enough to fit in this chair perfectly.

Who doesn't love a good chaise lounge?

This was my husband, Andrew’s favorite chair (at least in that particular room):

 Here’s a close-up of the detail:

Award for best re-use of a disposable material:

(that's bubble wrap in case you can't tell) - I bet that chair would be really sticky to sit on during the summer.

Exhibit Dates: Sep 08, 2018 - April 28, 2019