The Kolho chair was developed without the use of a computer and every iteration was made to scale from plywood and cardboard reinforced with fiberglass and epoxy. The chair pictured here was one of 8 final prototypes that were a progression of seating geometry and dimensions. The final 8 prototypes were tested by people large and small, old and new friends, and some people I barely knew. These 8 chairs came from a summer of making plywood sketches of tables and chairs that numbered in the dozens.
The chair was an obsession with thinking about the Apollo space mission and depening my knowledge of Apollo and his naughty brother Dionysus. I was trying to fuse ideas of chaos and order into a comfortable dining chair. The serpentine form came from thinking about Dionysus and Bacchus while the seat came from thinking about reason and Apollo.
The chair started as a dining chair and wanting it to be comfortable so that it can be used to allow for one to engage in the most intimate cultural performance we humans have created…which is dining. The dining area of one’s home is the place that we share our values and stories to people we love and those we welcome into our homes. It is in this belief where I see no difference in the pursuit of art or design.
The things I make, I am trying to share as much as I can either through meaning or utility. This “project” of Kolho was made in one of the most beautiful moments of my life carrying the stories of this moment touched by the lovely humans who helped make this obsession a reality. I likely should have been working on other things but it was too hard and too fun to let it slip away. The eight chairs and the table that I made in Somerset while in residence became the center of working on Maa, the role playing game and exhibitions in @hauserwirthsomerset and @serlachiusmuseums.
The story is long. Maybe someday I can tell you the whole thing. Or, perhaps it is more important that I spend the time to remember it so that maybe I can do it again.
Matthew Day Jackson 21.1.2022
