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Knoll is partnering with rising artist Noel Mercado to reinvent three of its traditional chairs. Mercado focuses on utilizing repurposed supplies to reinterpret traditional varieties and got here to the eye of Knoll’s artistic group final 12 months when he re-upholstered a classic bentwood Knoll chair body with the Kool Cigarette brand in vegan leather-based.
This time, Mercado has re-imagined the Cesca, Spoleto and Wassily chairs with salvaged objects one would possibly discover at a automobile junkyard. For the Cesca chair, he used a whole bunch of Little Timber air fresheners, these brightly coloured pine tree aromatics which have develop into a popular culture icons. Mercado says he all the time had one hanging from his automobile’s rearview mirror when he started driving whereas in highschool in Chicago.
“I just like the sculptural high quality and the colourful colours,” he says.
Mercado reinvented the Spoleto chair with outdated automobile audio system and swaddled the Wassily chair in salvaged automobile seat belts, so it holds “you up moderately than holding you in.”
The Cesca chair redesigend with “Little Timber” air fresheners.
Adam Jason Cohen/Courtesy Knoll
The Knoll items are consistent with Mercado’s upcycled ethos and reverence for 20th and 21st century icons. Earlier this 12 months, he collaborated with Swiss modular furnishings maker USM on a group of bespoke items, together with handmade vests and hats in signature USM coloration block configurations and a credenza with a built-in clothes hanger.
For the Knoll collaboration, Mercado had full artistic freedom.
“The connection between artwork and design is important to every thing we do at Knoll,” Suzanne Michaels, Knoll’s senior director of world model artistic, stated in an announcement. “Noel’s work — which is positioned proper on the intersection of those disciplines — challenges viewers to rethink on a regular basis objects.”
The three artworks will likely be out there for buy on Mercado’s web site (noel-mercado.com) beginning Tuesday. The artist will obtain one hundred pc of the proceeds.
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