Thursday, July 09, 2009

A seat at the top of the table


Around this time last year we showed you some photographs taken by Michael Wolf and the make-shift chairs above were also photographed by him. We present them as a homage to Martino Gamper. The catalogue of his exhibition 100 chairs in 100 days is one of those books everyone wants to steal from our place. To save you the trip, you can buy a copy here at split/fountain. They also stock his most recent publication Piccolo Volume —II—. If we make Martino Gamper sound like a publisher it’s unintentional, he is rather one of the most creative furniture designers in the world. A friend explains why Gamper claims there is “no perfect chair”. As Gamper often makes new chairs by collaging old ones, as a commission he invited Gamper to chose a couple of chairs from his own home. Gamper chose the two best ones but the result was sensational and worth the gesture. Martino Camper was recently married to Francis Upritchard and exhibited with her and Karl Fritsch (how many favourite artists can you have in one post!) earlier this year. You can see the result of their collaboration here at Kate MacGarry.
Images: Michael Wolf’s photographs of makeshift chairs in China