Transforming the Living Room into a Newly-Accented Room of Desire

Inspired by Richard Hamilton’s 1956 collage of a living room, curator Matylda Krzykowski transforms Chamber Gallery into a room of high concept design objects for living. It's an ode to Hamilton’s intention of highlighting goods of desire, and though the New York gallery is dressed with traditional living room decor—like tables, rugs, dressers, and hung photos—the objects are resuscitated forms that have been elegantly crafted to become provocative pieces of art.

“Making a choice of items for a gallery is like collecting fragments for a collage. Curating is pasting objects into a space, similar to pasting fragments onto a page," Krzykowski tells The Creators Project.

The exhibit, titled Just What Is It, is full of domestic sculptures, interactive mirrors, and foldable structures, enticing the viewer to rethink the intersection between form and function, envy and desire. Krzykowski says that the objects in her show are “open for definition, and statement pieces allow space for personal fascination and motivation.”

In this show, the product designer becomes the artist, rethinking the comfort and function of pieces of furniture and punctuating objects with the uncanny. The show features special commissions and rare items by 22 designers and collectives, including Deborah Bowmann, Studio Swine, and Rafal Dominik, among others.

There is the kinetic foldable mirror by Florian Ziller and Fatemeh Naderi, whose reflective geometric shape is informed by origami, and five merino wool blankets by Design Displacement Group with political and theoretical messages woven into them. The home that could house both objects is one of the imagination.

Shore Rug’s Herculean silicone cord carpet, Cruise: Blue 3/ Blue 9, measuring eight by 20 feet, is handmade and meant to be an indoor/outdoor flooring solution that is UV resistant, waterproof, and durable. The duo, comprised of Louie Rigano and Gil Muller, says, “This rug, being so large—the largest we've ever made—was made by both of us simultaneously, weaving from opposite ends and meeting at the middle.”

Along the gallery’s perimeter hangs the Still Life photo light boxes of Mirka Laura Severa, which combine luxury goods with prosthesis in stylized compositions that question the superficiality of perfect bodies. Bare breast implants posed with crystalline ice cubes and a manicured silicone hand in peony petals yearn to be beautiful, yet political, statements of acquired wealth or imperfect lives.

Each object within the show is worthy of investigation, whether for its composition, message, or ingenuity. If the pieces themselves are beyond your means, the exhibit’s collage-inspired poster, designed by Rafal Dominik and Krzykowski, is worthy of being framed. The curator says, “Collection #3 will be a temporary and static image at the same time. The show in the gallery will last for a limited amount of time, but the digitally created image is permanent.”

To learn more about Collection #3, Just What Is It, visit Chamber Gallery through December 3rd.

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