Joyce Lin’s “Exploded Chair” is a fascinating furniture design that plays with our perception of reality. The chair, made of wood and acrylic parts, appears to be falling apart, with its pieces scattered like fragments from an explosion. This optical illusion is achieved by placing the wooden parts, designed with plug-in modules, separately inside clear acrylic boxes. The superimposition of one chair form over another highlights both the joinery of its parts and the form as a whole, questioning the idea of a chair’s function and physical reality.
Lin’s design is a commentary on the concept of materiality and permanence. By dismembering the chair and placing its parts in clear boxes, she challenges our understanding of what a chair should be and how it should function. The title “Exploded Chair” is a reference to exploded view diagrams, which are used to illustrate the internal components of a design. This project showcases Lin’s creativity and skill in pushing the boundaries of furniture design.
I made a chair to be dismembered and partitioned into clear plastic boxes. The superimposition of one chair form over another emphasizes both the joinery of its parts and the form as a whole, calling into question the idea/function of a chair versus its physical reality and ideas about material and permanence. The title is a reference to exploded view diagrams.
Joyce Lin
More info: Website, Behance, Instagram (h/t: My Modern Met).
