Name of Work:
Power/Knowledge Workout Chair
Cherry wood, Carrara marble, tinted glass, brass rod, aluminum pulley / 31”w x 42”d x 80”hAbout the Work:
Locked indoors this past spring, while we dreamed of returning to normal life, we adapted to isolation by devising design solutions within our homes. Our spaces and belongings took on new meanings, as did our relationships to them, and we wanted to imagine an object that reflected that. Our submission to this year's Inside/Out is an improvised workout chair titled Power/Knowledge, a term borrowed from the French postmodernist philosopher Michel Foucault, who often critiqued the relationship between knowledge and power in the modern world. Foucault uses the term ‘Power/Knowledge’ to signify that power is constituted through accepted forms of knowledge, scientific understanding, and truth. Using a stack of books as a counterweight, the wooden workout bench becomes a tool to playfully engage both physical and mental strength. A series of pulleys attached to a solid cherry wood frame thread the steel cable holds for both arms. Planes of white carrara marble and tinted green glass hover in between and above the mechanisms, in shapes that counter the otherwise sedate and institutional appearance. Our hope is that with all the reimagining we have done with our lives in 2020, we find joy in making due with what we already have.
About the Studio:
ARCANA is a multidisciplinary, NY-based design studio led by Dustin John and Jack Eriksson, who have been co-collaborators for the past 2 years. Use and dis-use of everyday materials creates an otherworldly tension that is at the center of their practice. ARCANA’s aim is to create new objects while at the same time accessing the designers’ specific and common visual material histories.
ARCANA is a multidisciplinary, NY-based design studio led by Dustin John and Jack Eriksson, who have been co-collaborators for the past 2 years. Use and dis-use of everyday materials creates an otherworldly tension that is at the center of their practice. ARCANA’s aim is to create new objects while at the same time accessing the designers’ specific and common visual material histories.