A few weeks ago I passed by a design exhibition, titled Class of Chairs 2013, by Interior and Spatial Designer Aseel Alyaqoub, Architect and Digital artist Jassim Alsaddah, and Architect Yousef Almehdari. The exhibition was held at Contemporary Art Platform Gallery in Shuwaikh.
On my way to the exhibition I honestly didn't know what to expect, I assumed it was just another exhibition exploring new elements of pure chair design. I didn't expect it to be an exhibition where they actually linked chair design with serious social psychological issues within our community in a very light-hearted and cleaver way.
I met with one of the creative brains behind Class of Chairs, Jassim Al Saddah, who happens to be my cousin too and I'm extremely proud of his creativity and talent. Jassim explained to me that Class of Chairsis a sarcastic commentary on the stereotypical characters found within school life, the representation of the high school hierarchy and social groups found in playgrounds and classrooms.
The collection of chairs is a literal adaptation of the different student typecasts found in schools in Kuwait. Each chair represents an individual high school persona, where the character’s attributes are translated in the design aspect of its material and functional use.
As I walked pass each and every chair, I started to recall nostalgic scenes of school memories. And I thought to myself, this does not only applies to school life, this applies to life in general, whether at family/friends gatherings, work, or anywhere basically. It managed to create a relatable experience to each and every visitor. Let me walk you through some of my favorite chairs...
The "Nerd" chair
The "Hairy Guy" chair
The "Goody two shoes" chair
The "Teacher's Pet" chair
The "Attention Seeker" chair and boy we have a lot of those in Kuwait!
The "One... that everybody used to hate for no apparent reason"... sad but funny!
The "Cheap Skate"
The "Hippie" chair...
The schizophrenic: "I will never get bored of myself."
That's me chatting with my cousin. Thank you Yousef Al Ibrahim for taking this photo.
The Perv: "Right click, save image as...."
The "Heart Breaker": "It wasn't me...."
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