‘There is sculpture in everything, even in a chair’: Tom Sachs on his Chicago exhibition

Furniture has long been part of artist Tom Sachs’ oeuvre. For over 30 years he’s been designing and building chairs, tables, cabinets and more, considering his furniture an extension of his sculpture practice. His ‘NASA’ chairs from his 2012 show sold out in five hours when he re-editioned them in 2017, and in the early days of his career, he was assisting Frank Gehry when Gehry designed his bent plywood chair for Knoll. 

This week, Sachs unveils his first furniture show in the US in over 20 years, at Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago, a building supported by Theaster Gates’ Rebuild Foundation, established by Gates in 2010. The meticulously restored former bank has lent its first floor to Anthony Gallery for a year-long takeover. ‘Tom Sachs: Furniture’ (on view until 4 September 2022) is the fourth show to be presented by Anthony Gallery in the space. 

The exhibition will showcase a selection of new and past designs, including his ‘Shop Chair’, which appeared on Wallpaper’s April 2019 newsstand cover. Its plentiful holes are inspired by the so-called ‘lightening holes’ from Second World War aviation, when excess material was removed to make structures both lighter and stronger. ‘We drilled out as much as we could while still making sure there is support,’ Sachs told Wallpaper* at the time. 

His armchair titled Crate Chair No 13 (2018) is crafted from found ConEd red and white barriers, a material he previously used in his mixed media artwork The Cabinet (2014). 

Indeed, Sachs creates his pieces with evidence of their construction, almost delighting in the very practice of building. His fascination with the everyday plays out in his mixed-media sculptures, which often use ordinary-to-the-point-of-mundane materials. These are not cosy, comfortable designs; there’s not an upholstered cushion in sight.

After all, Sachs is the artist who, regarding his long-term collaboration with Nike, told Wallpaper*: ‘I take the sock-liners out of my sneakers so that the ground is harder below so I can think clearer. I like to feel my skeletal structure because it’s within all of us.’

Although they are considered an extension of his art and sculpture practice, Sachs has encouraged people to use his chairs and wear his Nike collaboration trainers, preferring his work to be engaged with, rather than tiptoed around. The physical, elemental nature of the works offers an interesting contrast to Sachs' exploration into NFTs, in particular with his Rocket Factory, which won him a Wallpaper* 2022 Design Award. 

To mark the opening of the Chicago exhibition, Tom Sachs’ Rocket Factory will be doing a physical rocket launch on 8 July at Chicago's Kenwood Gardens, another of the city’s South Side locations invested in by Theaster Gates.

INFORMATION

‘Tom Sachs: Furniture’ runs from 7 July to 4 September 2022

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