Rarely does a major artexhibition invite viewers to “please touch” the items on display. Butaccessibility plays a significant role in the recently opened exhibit titled“Green Furniture Design” at the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM).
This timely subjectstresses upcycling, sustainability and efficiency while featuring ingeniousdesigns from 15 furniture makers and artists. Viewers will appreciate themuseum’s effort to make the exhibit accessible since one may actuallyexperience the furniture to assess its comfort.
Chairs, desks and tablescontribute to the exhibition’s composition. Hongtao Zhou creates easily movableand storable chairsfrom naturally finished wood scrapsthat resemble armless,avant-garde Adirondack chairs. San Francisco’s Varian Designs reassembles pieces salvagedfrom a barn in Roxbury, Wis. The company’s desk/table thatincorporates vintage joinery techniques appears timeless with recycled woodfrom the 1800s placed atop black metal legs.
Two other design firmsreuse materials to create chairs with classical roots. David Raful designs aswivel barrel chair from truck tire parts, with patches imaginativelyintegrated into the upholstery’s pattern. Bike Furniture Design revisitsmid-20th-century interiors when it repurposes bicycle tires and tubes into apliable seat for personal relaxation. Both chairs function extremely well,ergonomically and aesthetically.
Sustainability lendsitself to using cork, which not only is waterproof and anti-bacterial, but alsowill never rot. New York’sDan Michalik creates granulated cork bowls and furniture. Mature cork can beharvested every nine years and demonstrates great potential as a multipurposematerial.
Furniture designs by MikeJarvi from Lake Bluff, Ill., emphasize efficiency, as he tries toreduce transportation and shipping costs. Jarvi harvests wood from local orurban forests to craft pieces recalling an Arts and Crafts style that revivesMichael Thonet’s Bentwood furniture first produced in 1859. Jarvi’s benchincorporates a steam bending process with the wood to create elegant piecesthat require no metal fastenings.
Statistics displayed inthe museum gallery state that the average office chair breaks down into 79separate parts that will remain in a landfill for more than 100 years. Byreusing, recycling and rethinking our environmental choices, society can makeresponsible decisions that benefit future generations. Not every design in theexhibition proves worthy, but the principles explored throughout “GreenFurniture Design” require serious reflection on how they can impact theenvironment and the economynow and in the future.
MAM hosts a “Green Fair”on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to discuss significantissues explored in the exhibit. The exhibition continues through March 14,2010.
