Danish paper cord is used primarily as a seat weaving material made popular in mid-century Danish furniture. Mid-century designers aimed to create good quality design for the masses; unadorned with simple and strong silhouettes. Their work proved incredibly popular, bolstered by the support of guilds and state investment in public services and design. Today Danish mid-century furniture is among some of the most expensive to be found in the home attaining elite connotations and cult status, as the Scandinavian values and lifestyles attached to these objects have created a marketable brand that international consumers are keen to adopt. Has the social objective of mid-century Danish design been dissolved by its exclusivity, marketisation and globalisation?

In this work, I use the design of the Wishbone chair by Hans Wegner as the pattern for an over-scaled chair-seat-become-wall-panel of 1.2m x 1.2m. Here, the same design and same material of the Wegner chair is made monstrously large (three times the dimensions of the Wishbone chair). Out of a different scale evolves a different function and it is made maerkeligt familiaer; strangely familiar. By scaling up the seat I play with its functionality, aesthetic value and symbolic performance, highlighting how the intended social value of the chair has been diminished.

Over-scaling provides several tangents of analysis: it speaks to both the dominance in popularity of these chairs as well as the relationship between scale and comfort in the domestic setting. By situating it outside its typified function, scale and setting, our perception of it is radically altered. The seat-turned-panel exists at the scale of an art piece and we are asked to look and critically examine the broader themes. Furniture's functionality allows it to exist alongside our human-scale without the same scrutiny. Once objects of collective value and shared use, the chairs have now become objects for observation, markers of (upper) social class and a globally renowned design reference.

My whole body was required for the process of making the panel; moving around the frame and lifting it up to weave the cord along, through and between surfaces. There is a meditative nature to the work of repeated actions and time dedicated to the craft. I have learnt to respond to the materials natural laying, to pull it ‘more cleanly’ into position. The film explores the repetition of movement and my relationship with the large wheel of cord that is woven around the frame, at times requiring disentanglement. Making at the scale is part of the performance, the art of labour.

*Strangely Familiar