Rocking Chair by Ron Arad
In 2009 I visited the impressive solo exhibition of Ron Arad in the Centre Pompidou in Paris. I made many photo’s, but not until this year I found some time to prepare them for use on this blog.
The Rocking Chair, lacking the curved feet of traditional rockers, relies on its name to indicate its function. Made of bent tubular steel, it creates a different, somewhat scissor-like rocking movement. It was this mechanical idea, rather than an aesthetic quality, that Arad intended as the meaning of the chair, and he has indeed denied that it is at all stylish. This chair holds special significance as his first proper work of design—or, rather, the first time he was aware that he was designing. It signals his earliest venture beyond the readymade and toward design that did not rely on salvaged or repurposed materials. The final version of the Rocking Chair is sleeker than the original, which was conceived as another Kee Klamp construction (and determined too risky for unsuspecting fingers). One Off made several hundred of these chairs.
Text: MoMa