valentina gonzalez wohlers: the ghost of a chair

‘the ghost of a chair’ image © designboom

mexican-born london-based designer valentina gonzalez wohlers continues her exploration of the reinterpretation of immateriality, by expanding on her ‘the ghost of a chair’ project. first exhibited in 2009, wohlers has now developed the chair into a series of 13 hand-made one-of-a-kind pieces, all exhibited at designersblock during london design week 2010.

image © designboom

the chairs are an apparition from death, revealed to the living as a nebulous image, manifesting itself, but not actually existing: only its memory and its disembodied spirit captured and frozen in time. this is wohler’s vision for her ‘the ghost of a chair’ furniture project.

image © designboom

the chairs are all hand-made from a 4mm transparent acrylic sheet, each one’s form unrepeatable due to its manufacturing process. a faint sheet, immaterial and transparent, drapes over a louis XV chair, falling over its soft curves and styled armrests, reaching the floor with full pleats and static movement.

image © designboom

the drapery of the chairs can be as spiritual as the ghosts themselves. the most prominent feature of each is their gross materiality, as they seem to be conspicuously clothed.

installation view of ‘the ghost of a chair’ furniture project at designersblock 2010 image © designboom

some of the ghostly chairs image © designboom

individual chairs image courtesy of valentina glez wohlers

individual chairs image courtesy of valentina glez wohlers

installation view of the 13 ghostly chairs at designersblock 2010 image © designboom

image by maxime champion courtesy of valentina glez wohlers

image by maxime champion courtesy of valentina glez wohlers

draping experimentation image © designboom

documentation of the manufacturing process images courtesy of valentina gonzalez wohlers

documentation of the manufacturing process images courtesy of valentina gonzalez wohlers