Is this a joke?
Looks like something you could sit on if you had to. But wait, is that a bunch of old rags?
Tejo Remy is a Dutch designer. His 1991 Rag Chair “is created from layered clothing and discarded rags. The reused textiles are collected and shaped with black metal straps to form a large, bulky and eccentric lounge chair. The concept behind the chair is to provide a unique piece of furniture, while at the same time providing a collection of memories that can be flipped through and treasured.”* Every chair is different, of course, and can be custom made for you from your old clothes.
He also designs chests of drawers, called “You Can’t Lay Down Your Memories,” which are composed of random drawers bundled together by metal straps.
As you look at these, both the chair and the drawers, do you get the feeling that what might be operating here is irony?
In the case of the chair, if you really treasured your old clothes and the memories they associate to, you would preserve them in a more, shall we say, loving way. You might re-tailor a jacket or a skirt for whimsical evening wear, to go to the theater, say. You could engage a quilter to go wild with her imagination or donate your stuff to a painter friend for incorporation in a mixed medium piece. Such re-purposing comes with a dose of irony, sure, but it would be irony cultivated out of a sense of history, melancholy and affirmation.
The bundled up drawers are even more ironic than the Rag Chair because they come with a didactic name attached: ‘You Can’t Lay Down Your Memories.” You’re saying I’m trying to lay down my memories? But I can’t?! You’re saying, memories are all a jumble and they will never fall into place in an orderly pattern that makes sense. Might as well face it and live with the randomness that is called your memories.
If your past—personal, social, historical—makes sense and was orderly, then you will have a place for everything and everything in its place. You will be offended by Remy’s pile of mismatched drawers. You will restore and treasure an antique breakfront or china cabinet. Like this, perhaps.
Both the Rag Chair and “You Can’t Lay Down Your Memories” are in museum collections and valued in the thousands. These designs are freighted with, yes, irony, which means you are being challenged to think and interpret.
The Indianapolis Museum of Art has a Remy Rag Chair. Next time I go there I’ll hover around the Rag Chair waiting to hear someone say to a spouse, Oh, honey we’ve got to have one of these, perfect for the TV room, looks cheap and the kids wouldn’t have to be careful. That won’t happen. People will continue to look confused and challenged by modernism.
Next, we’ll look at our contemporary need for re-purposing.
In the meantime, allow yourself to be fooled by something today, this April First.
*Quoted from Chair—500 Designs that Matter. Phaidon.
Tejo Remy, b. 1960
All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.
artamaze by Katherine Hilden 