Netherlands-based designer Ka-Lai Chan’s newest furniture collection, The Ordinary Family, premiered during OBJECT Rotterdam 2012. The Ordinary Family can now be seen at Judy Straten Gallery.
Consisting of five pieces, the collection was inspired in part by Chan’s own family observations as well as observing families around her. It includes a rocking horse, coffee table, side table, praying chair and the No Sign of Design chair — a basic practical chair by the influential Dutch designer Richard Hutten.
Ana
Gabriel
Isabella
According to Chan, the pieces represent a common human family and frozen moments that can be interpreted as points in their personal lives of members of a family. For example, the classical side table (Isabella, above), refers to a young girl’s obsession with external psychical beauty. The spectacle of recycled plastic on the coffee-table melting through the tabletop (Julian, below) was inspired by a parent, who cannot resist the temptation of alcohol and drugs, which “drag” him down into a colorful, almost psychedelic depth. This family is “ordinary” in the sense that we interpret our normalcy as containing flaws and hidden secrets. What family is perfect?
Julian
Vincent
Photos by Jay Tang | VISUAL CREATURE.
