Folding Chair 2006

This project initiated an interest in folding chair design, which eventually evolved into the Lyke Chair.  Folding chairs can be two different things depending on the situation, and therefore, extremely adaptable to their environment and use. With this chair, I'm playing against the materials and proportions typically associated with folding furniture. The materials and proportions most often used tend to speak to the chair's utility above all else. The intention here is to offer a bit more.

Folding chairs can negate their use by hiding away until needed. Fold away furniture is a common trope. But beyond the utility of storing things away, I am interested in the idea that a chair can be both here and not here.  Freud wrote about children playing “Fort Da” (away/here) - hide and seek or peekaboo -  as a way of working through attachment and separation from parents, and towards object permanence. There is something interesting about everyday objects that can play that same kind of trick.