hair chair (art break)

Object: trompe l’oeil chair (look closely, it’s there)

Location: Fishtown home of independent curator, Eileen Tognini

Background: The chair is by Brenna K. Murphy, whose medium is hair.

Here’s her artist statement from InLiquid: “Working primarily with my own hair, I create works on paper and photographs as well as site-specific installations. The product of a nomadic upbringing, moving eight times and living in six states by the age of eighteen, I am interested in the relationship between the ideal of Home and the body. My work explores the possibility that the body can be a surrogate Home for those that don’t have one as is traditionally defined in our culture, while also acknowledging the temporality of both the body and our collective cultural notion of Home.”

In 2011, Murphy collaborated with fashion designer Sarah Van Aken as part of the DesignLab series at Moore.

Context: The idea of hair as home is so compelling. A curtain of hair is handy for hiding, but hair as a building material is a nonstarter—unless you’re a bird, of course. I love the tensions in Murphy’s work.

This particular chair with its medallion backrest, generous seat, carved details, and curved legs, has the lines of a Louis XV armchair—the same one Philippe Starck re-imagined in plastic.