For designer Chris Wolston, creating is all about experiencing the world around us.
“Our hands connect us to the world, acting as a conduit between technique and materiality,” he says. This philosophy is embodied in the Touch Me, Feel Me Chair—a piece that fuses form and function by playing with material and the senses.
“Haptic sensory experience is central to my practice,” Chris says. “I would say this chair is shaped more by the continual nature of my process than by any singular moment of ‘touching.’ I see it as an ongoing interaction—one in which bodies continuously engage with material and the world around them.”
The Touch Me, Feel Me Chair is hard to miss, with sculpted hands that seem to reach out from all angles.
“My hands are what I use to create, to see the world, and to experience material—they bridge my perception of reality and my expression of it. This is true for many artists, which may explain why hands have played such a central role in figuration throughout art history.”
The materials and fabrication process add to the chair’s tactile, almost surreal quality. Chris says he listens to the material and lets it reveal itself through its own efficacy and applicability. “I like to think I’ve thoughtfully composed a pre-existing material cosmology within my work—repositioning certain elements that have existed for centuries to create a new language or tell a new story.”
A primary focus in Chris’ work centers around the relationship between humans and material—how we value it, how we manipulate it, and how it shapes us in return.
“I see my practice as a relational exploration, creating opportunities to engage with material directly and see it in new ways,” he says. “When someone sits in a Nalgona Chair, with its wicker hands, feet, and butt, they are in direct conversation with the material itself—how it is woven, shaped, and sculpted.”
A version of this article originally appeared in “Nice Chairs” in Sixtysix Issue 14.
