PROJECT DESCRIPTION
From a felted chair resembling mushrooms to a rocking chair made from 3-D printed recycled plastic, Conversation Pieces featured 45 works of furniture that prioritize meaning and material choice over function and taste. The exhibition by Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, SFMOMA’s Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design, and Alexandra Loew, a Los Angeles-based interior architect, was organized into fluid and meandering categories that felt conversational rather than authoritative. Wall-to-wall carpet softened the white cube gallery, and a large glowing paper shroud lowered the high ceiling to domestic scale. With plush seating for visitors and intimate, moody lighting, the gallery fostered an immersive atmosphere that invited visitors into the unfolding conversation.
In recorded interviews interspersed and playing throughout the gallery, six artists offered their perspectives on contemporary issues. The voices of the designers evoked a cocktail party atmosphere, which encouraged visitors to join in conversations with other visitors and draw connections between the furniture and contemporary issues, including sustainability, identity, and history.
Avoiding the prescriptive institutional look of conventional museum didactics, the object labels for this exhibition were dust jackets on stacks of each artist’s monographs or related books, evoking the display of coffee table books in homes.
PROJECT INFORMATION
Entry Type: Single Entry
Channel: Immersive
Primary Role of the Designer: Designer as craftsman
Client Relationship: Unknown (NA) / Other (if other, please explain) Consulting, partner and in-house team
Intention of the Project: Unknown (NA) / Other (if other, please explain) Exhibition
Development Budget: Confidential / Not available
Production/Execution Budget: Confidential / Not Available
Source of Funding: Nonprofit/NGO/trust fund
Typefaces: SFMOMA Display, SFMOMA Text
Paper:
Materials: paper, books, carpet, vinyl, paint
CREDIT INFORMATION
Creative Director: Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, Alexandra Loew, Bosco Hernández
Art Director:
Designers: Amanda Boesen, Sarah Choi
Researchers: Divya Saraf
Developers:
Copywriter:
Illustrator:
Photographer: Matthew Millman; Katherine Du Tiel
Printer:
Producer:
Other Credits: Alexandra Loew Design Team: Nathaly der Boghosian; Luis Ortega Govela; Alexander Kardanovskiy. SFMOMA Team: Steve Dye – Collections Technical Manager; David Funk – Project Manager, Exhibitions; Jody Hanson – Art Director; Sean Horchy – Collection Technical Specialist; Jess Kreglow – Lead Preparator, Installation; Brandon Larson – Gallery Infrastructure and Fabrication Manager; Anna Lau – Associate Registrar, Collections. Advanced Technical Sewing: Komiko Furukawa.
Conversation Pieces: Contemporary Furniture in Dialogue
Category
Environmental / Experiential Design
Description
Winner - 365: AIGA Year in Design (2022)
Title: Conversation Pieces: Contemporary Furniture in Dialogue
Design Firm/Agency: Alexandra Loew STUDIO + SFMOMA
Client Industry:
Client Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Juror Comments
“This exhibition tears us away from our usual habit of assuming that designed object are experienced singly, as if they are suspended in space. It reminds us that all design interacts with us, and with the objects and context around it. The truth of this conversation will come as a shocker to those who never consider anything outside the footprint of their building or the edge of their screen. And that’s exciting and makes this a winning project. The exhibition breaks down the usual ‘cubification’ of display, relying instead on organic forms, and invites the observer to speculate on just what those two chairs are saying to each other, and to us.”
Self-Identified Distinctions: Design for Good - Social Releavance, Design for Good - Cultural Awareness, Design for Good - Environmental Sustainability
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