Ooh Tuesday, why you gotta be such a drain? Everything just seems more difficult at the start of the week. Somehow, designer Hui Chun Chen’s Constructing Memory collection manages to embody that feeling in furniture that takes extra effort to put — and keep — together.
The chair, in particular, requires a level of engagement that turns the act of sitting into something of a puppet show, where manoeuvring the tension of strategically placed strings will pull the seat into place. Gently, though. You gotta be gentle to get comfortable here, and even once you’re fully balanced, comfortable might actually be an overstatement.
Chen wanted to “stimulate the daily routine,” producing pieces that were, in some way, an extension of our own bodies and part of our very personal physical tool set. It’s part N*SYNC in Bye Bye Bye, a bit Pilates routine, a dash of zen exercise, fascinating and infuriating and beautifully executed. Do I appreciate the concept? Absolutely. Do I want to sit in it? Not today. No thank you. [MoCo Loco]
