The Architectural Imprint of the Eames
I have spend most of my life sitting in chairs. Whether I am carrying out mundane daily activities or studying for an exam, I am sitting in a chair in a classroom, in my house, at a diner, at a movie theatre, the list goes on. And aside from the furniture my mom picked out for my childhood room, no chair is my own. The chairs in our dorm rooms and class rooms have been recycled for decades, and chairs in coffee shops and restaurants have a new user every hour or so. Because of this, I have easily overlooked the architectural imprint of the chair itself, and how much thought goes into such a universal object.
The Eames documentary made me realize that every other chair I have sat in comes from Charles, Ray, and the rest of the team. My eyes have been opened when I learned how influential their work is to society considering how their chair designs are etched into my subconscious just because of how common all of their designs are. (I have seen their desk chairs and lounge chairs and stools in most homes and public spaces I frequent.) But an artifact that I found in the archives from the Eames website that I wanted to highlight was the wire chair.
I hate wire chairs. I like inviting chairs that are plush and comfortable and make me feel warm. Like chocolate brown leather or white fuzzy detailing or big circular love seats. And I’ve always expressed this dislike for wired chairs because not only do I associate them as stick figures in a sea of multimedia-ed art pieces, but they just look uncomfortable to sit on.
However, after watching the Eames documentary, and seeing Ray’s photo of the juxtaposition of wire chairs with a bird who shared these wire legs, I have gained a new appreciation for this object. Because although I don’t associate thin metal wires with comfortability and desirability, I saw the chairs together and thought of a family, and how there is a place for them in the world of furnitire.
Nature holds big grizzly bears and cute dogs and and baby goats and mice and frogs and colorful fish, and human beings with fleshy bodies.
And crows with sleek black wings and wire-stick legs. There is definitely a place for wire chairs and i have a new-found appreciation for them now.
