ACQUIESCE
In 2012, the Museum of Design Atlanta held an exhibition, Stories in Form, honoring history and design through the medium of the chair. The works featured in the exhibit were created as part of Portfolio Center’s nationally acclaimed course “Modernism: History, Criticism and Theory,” which explores design history as a catalyst for new design ideas. While learning about Modernism, the history of design and the development of critical thinking skills, students in the course create chairs by means of a design process that combines inspiration from a historical period with personal experience. This exercise in design is recognized nationwide for the challenge it presents to students, for it compels students to go beyond perfunctory design solutions and to balance old and new, conservative and eccentric, safe and dangerous as they design chairs that re-imagine their personal histories as three-dimensional objects.
Acquiesce represents the gradual ease into chaos, letting go of the things you cannot change and embracing the mess that is life. The tangled steel shows the capability of a structure to endure an incredible amount of stress but still maintain its original function; to support. The knotted and aged burl redwood symbolizes beauty and chaos with its irregular figure wildly running in every direction.
Crafted by Stephen Evans and Corrina Mensoff.
“The closest to being in control we will ever be is in that moment we realize we are not.”