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See the classic Eames Shell Chair redesigned 13 different ways

A midcentury icon gets a surreal makeover by British artist Chris Labrooy.

See the classic Eames Shell Chair redesigned 13 different ways

[Photo: courtesy Chris Labrooy]

BY Jesus Diaz1 minute read

There’s something Duchamp-esque about the latest work of Chris Labrooy. The British artist and designer’s ongoing remix project, Garden of Eames, transforms the classic Eames shell chair, designed in 1950, into surreal fine art that packs an absurdist punch.

Labrooy, who has also worked for brands like Apple, Nike, and Porsche, isn’t shy about pushing the Eames’s timeless design into strange and surprising places. In some pieces, he transforms the original fiber material into colorful fluid shapes that look as if they’re made out of gummy candy. Other reinventions play with repetition; in one, Labrooy mounted several white shells along a single base, making it look like someone applied the Photoshop clone stamp tool. Other seats grow spherical appendixes along the underside of the simple shell, partially obscuring the chair’s wiry legs.

[Photo: courtesy Chris Labrooy]
Animals are another theme: There are vibrant stuffed fabric rabbits growing out of some chairs, as if they’re jumping from another dimension into this world. In one of the pieces, a mustard-colored lion cub gets ready to pounce on a shell, deforming it. It’s covered in the same fluffy fur as the cub itself. Another bright yellow chair appears to melt onto the floor, forming a little house for happy puppies. My favorite is the stuffed sheep, half painted in pink paint, with its head coming through the chair’s seat. I wish this was being sold without the head, so I could work sitting on it.

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The project will be updated periodically as Labrooy creates new pieces, so make sure to bookmark it or follow him on Instagram.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jesus Diaz is a screenwriter and producer whose latest work includes the mini-documentary series Control Z: The Future to Undo, the futurist daily Novaceno, and the book The Secrets of Lego House. More


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