Whence It Came Current / Future Iterations

While working as a designer in residence at Monson Arts in Monson, Maine, I began my second iteration of this project with no end…3 interpretations of Hans Wegner’s J16 Rocking Chair. This chair has proven to be vastly more complex than the J39. This chair is the perfect mashup of languages and archetypes…windsor back rest, post and rung structure, woven seat, and the all American rockers…A mashup few, if any other than Wegner could ever make happen.
The twisting of paper bags, and the sheer size of the seat, has made weaving the seat for the J16_Big Box Vernacular take a completely unexpected amount of time…so much time, that I have had to bring it back to Cincinnati to complete, shop partner here likened the process to art. A compliment I greatly appreciate but have a hard time accepting.
The parts for the J16_Kentucky Danish are ready for final shaping, but my pain and numbness in Maine has shown me that they will have to wait until after carpal tunnel syndrome surgery.

Whence it Came may ask more questions than it answers, but that may well be the point. As I continue to ponder the origins of designed objects, the means by which they are and could be made, the lack of vernacular design in the 21st century, and so on, I continue to think of other chairs to explore in similar treatments…The J16 rocker by Hans Wegner, the Chandigrah Chair by Pierre Jeanneret, the Grass-Seated Chair, by George Nakashima…Is the way in which these were both designed and made, the best, truly the most efficient, the most appropriate?