American designer Misha Kahn and auction house Christie’s unveil a collection of ten colourful NFT designs, whose biomorphic figures are imagined as functional furniture pieces. Titled ‘Misha Kahn: Furniture Unhinged’ and on view until 24 August 2021, the collection also marks the auction house’s NFT debut.
‘What is really interesting to me about the idea of selling an NFT of a design object is that you can express yourself in an object that doesn’t need to be materialised,’ says Kahn, whose ever-increasing interest in the digital world has culminated into this imaginative series of hybrid designs.
The starting point for each NFT design is a 13-second animation by Kahn, from which the designer froze an individual frame to create the physical 3D-printed piece. The collection includes chairs, tables, storage furniture, a bird bath and lighting, and the auction’s winning bidders will also be able to print the piece into a tangible piece of furniture, either independently or through Kahn’s studio. The pieces’ shapes exist somewhere between the abstract and the functional; Kahn explains that his aim was to push the idea of furniture by abstracting its traditional forms and create something where people could recognise ‘the gesture’ of a lamp or a chair.
‘There have been other NFTs that deal with design and depict domestic living scenes or objects in space, but I didn’t feel like any of them were taking advantage of this idea of using the blockchain as a method to really sell design objects – looking at an NFT as more than just a visual, but a possibility for holistically selling a blueprint for an object in a new way,’ said Kahn in a conversation with his partner, journalist Nick Haramis, ahead of the sale.
Khan was keen to explore the potential of the virtual realm, shifting between digital and physical. ‘It could be incorporated into a video game, movie or any place an avatar lives, or it could be fully printed and functional,’ he says of the work. ‘You see so much of this in the world, where there are beautiful renderings that can be really compelling. I think that there’s a magic in that and a place for that – this idea of building a fantasy. I wanted to do it in a way where there’s also an object that can be completely made.’ §
