Functional/Unfunctional
What God Has Joined Together, Let No Man Put Asunder, Yinka Ilori, 2015 (image: Yinka Ilori).
“Aesthetically, I am always drawn to an object that looks like it’s on its last legs,” the designer Yinka Ilori once told Disegno’s editor Oli Stratford. “I can always see the potential in it.”
A recurring theme in Ilori’s career has been the creation of witty, bricolage-esque upcycled chairs, built out of furniture he finds discarded on the streets of London. “Most of the chairs I create are both functional and unfunctional,” Ilori said. “The important thing is that they provoke conversations that would have never been ignited without that chair as the starting point.”
This ethos has seen Ilori’s 2015 work What God Has Joined Together, Let No Man Put Asunder put forward as the headline acquisition for the Museum of London’s new display London Making Now, a temporary exhibition examining “the state of craft and making in modern London; exploring how makers have shaped, and are shaped by, the capital city.”
Joining Ilori’s work in the display will be pieces from contemporary designers and makers Adi Toch, James Shaw, Rachael South, Alison Cooke, Laura Carlin, Renee So, Claire Partington, Loraine Rutt, Romilly Saumarez Smith, Eleanor Lakelin, Matthew Raw, Simone Brewster, Emily Frances Barrett and Piotr Frac. The works have been acquired with funding secured under the Art Fund’s New Collecting Awards scheme, with the display scheduled to open on 24 September.
“London is, and always has been, a global workshop,” said Danielle Thom, the display’s curator. “The city has made everything from silverware to sideboards, its wares exported all over the world and representing the very best in craft and design.
“Popular perception is that London ceased to be a manufacturing hub during the industrial revolution, with making moving out to the industrial cities of the North and later overseas, but making is still an intrinsic part of London’s economy and its creative identity, bringing together an exciting network of craftspeople, artists, activists, designers and educators.”
While the show itself will examine this broader network, the museum’s communication has zeroed in on Ilori’s contribution. “Museum of London acquires Yinka Ilori chair for brand new display exploring contemporary making in London,” reads the press release announcing the project, the headline image displaying Ilori’s fusion of lemon and orange wooden chairs.
What God Has Joined Together, Let No Man Put Asunder, the museum explains, brings together “two reclaimed chair frames to create a harmonious whole”, as part of a piece reflecting on his parents’ marriage and his own childhood. The pleasure of the piece, however, is that this harmony is not overly harmonious – the join between the two chairs is elegant, but obvious. There’s no mistaking the final piece’s unorthodox origins, with its visual oddity immediately providing a route in to the narrative it explores.
“Chairs have phenomenal stories to tell,” Ilori once said. “Each one has been sat on by so many people we may never come across. That’s the beauty of storytelling through them. I can unravel those stories and then incorporate my own.”
In place of exquisite craftsmanship, Ilori’s work trades in narrative, drawing its elements from across London. “Craft has the power to affect society in unexpected ways,” remarks the museum, “shaping everything from migration to social and political reform.” As a poster child for the new display, What God Has Joined Together, Let No Man Put Asunder is a fine example of the stories craft can tell.
Story source: Museum of London