top of page
to About

Ubiquitous objects, chairs have one purpose and they usually do it so well we don't even notice.

Why are chairs the 'go-to' design object for designers (some architects and some artists, too)? Can we live without them? How can we change people's behaviour using chairs, and should we...? 

Where is the biggest chair ever made, and what was the point? How 'big' is the smallest chair ever to be made, and does anyone know where it is?

These and other questions may not be answered as we proceed, but discussions will be raised, more questions will be posed, some interesting images will be included, and emerging work will be showcased.

 

to Work

The author passing time on the beach (Swansea Bay, 2018)

This blog website is my attempt to fulfil the kind invitation and expectations of Oriel Myrddin Gallery and indulge myself in some 'Chair Talk'.

When I was invited to contribute a blog that was to run along side the 'Chair' exhibition at the gallery, the opportunity to talk about such compelling objects was too great an opportunity to miss. I will state from the start however, that I am not a chair historian, nor am I an expert on chairs, but I do know a bit about them, I find them strangely compelling objects and I know a bit about Design and designing too.

 

As a Senior Lecturer in Product Design at Swansea College of Art, I have the daily pleasure of working with design students and introducing them to other inherently interwoven creative paradigms. Admittedly, and inevitably, some students are reluctant to recognise the importance of the allied fields such as Art or Fashion Design, Graphic Design or music but I enjoy trying to show them why they are missing a trick or two. 

As an undergraduate myself, I studied Product & Furniture Design at Kingston University and since then, like many other '3-D' designers I have been secretly rather obsessed by chairs. 

Chairs are surprisingly complex objects. Most product design is of course, because all the meaningful things designers create we manifest at the human scale; chairs though are 'big'. They are big and complex things, not only do they have to function every time, but they also need to be comfortable - don't they? Some times they need to stack, or be inexpensive but not look 'cheap', they often employ new materials in their construction, and this is often difficult and challenging; they should also be fun though, and have a character of their own, and I believe this is one of the specific characteristics that is embodied in 'classic' or iconic chairs. A small but very special sample of such important pieces  on loan from the Design Museum and private collections are on display at Oriel Mryddin Gallery and I encourage you to go, then make repeat visits and start to become secretly obsessed too.

 

to Services

Successful design only comes about through often exhaustive trial and error, low fidelity models and scale versions that can be tested and discussed - and sometimes robustly defended.

 

This is a very good example, its a bit 'rough and ready' but at the early stages of the design process. That's how we teach design, through models and working prototypes. This chair is in progress and is specifically an explorative piece by David (Dai) Jarvis, who is studying MA Product Design at Swansea College of Art. At the moment, in this form, it has the appearance of being too restrained, captive and almost trapped, which, made from a mattress creates an awkward

duality between the comfort and discomfort. As Dai develops this piece it will be interesting to see how this oxymoronic work is resolved. It is doubly interesting as he is making attempts to blur some of the artificial boundaries between Art and Design - which, to my mind is a hugely positive pursuit.

 

Prototype for 'Mattress Chair'

David-John Jarvis. 2018)

Integrity is vital but often, perhaps conveniently forgotten by some designers. This April saw the launch of a new design-focused website and printed publication. I decided to create this in collaboration with fellow staff, students and alumni of Swansea College of Art as all too often, artifice is built around creative practices that are used to hide behind. This is not good enough, and as a lecturer and a practitioner, I do all I can to help break down these barriers of conceit.

My demand is that if work is created and made public, then the creator of it, the designer and artist (and others) must be prepared to stand next to it and discuss it. It is not enough to place it in the public realm and then think it sufficient abandon it and  "allow it to speak for itself;" so, to help chip away at the walls of artifice we built our Blunderbuss!

We load ideas and work, thinking, and discussions, philosophies of making and 'doing' into our Blunderbuss, and every quarter we aim towards a chosen target, our launch issue has our cross-hairs squared at 'Integrity'.

On page 4 to 7, I have introduced three new pieces - chairs that you cannot sit on... one of these is shown below and is intended to take a shot at those practitioners who 'believe their own hype', and that of the critics who encourage creative narcissism. Perhaps controversial, but some famous and some not so famous designers and artists manifest work that is intended to amplify the echo of self-adoration, but their attempts in fact are vague, lack integrity and contribute very little of cultural value. They and their work sit and stare at each other, absorbed by their own imagined, reflective purity and hear their echo of self-obsession.

www.blunderbuss.org

Prototype CAD render for 'Narcissus & Echo'

Pete Spring. 2018)

Narcissus and Echo

(1903)

John William Waterhouse

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.

bottom of page