ahead of her, the Los Angeles-based artist
Tanya Aguifiiga is young to have already
produced an iconic work. But a few years
ago, fresh out of design school, she did
just that.
Aguiniga took metal folding chairs - the
kind you find in church basements - and
screwed their parts together so that they
stayed open. She gave each chair a soft new
“skin” of felt, each in an emphatic color -
violet, gold, turquoise, tomato, steel-gray.
Suddenly those drab, familiar forms
were the opposite of their original selves:
vibrant, playful, touchy-feely objects
that would never again be folded up and
hidden away.
People loved the felt chairs. They made
a splash at the 2007 Design Miami expo,
and soon she was making them to order
(and still does). One customer wanted 21,
048 american craft apr/may 11
