Chamber is pleased to announce that Collection #3, curated by Matylda Krzykowski of Depot Basel, will open with Part III — Domestic Appeal— on March 2. Collection #3 is comprised of four parts that will open periodically from October 2016 through May 2017.

Part III is the third iteration inspired by the iconic 1956 artwork by Richard Hamilton, Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?, including the concept of collage, materialist fantasies, and the subsequent, pervasive temptation for household objects.

Domestic Appeal will explore groups of objects that are possibly as desirable now as the items featured prominently in Hamilton’s work half a century ago, at the dawn of the modern consumer age.

“In his artwork, Hamilton commented on rapid and fundamental changes in everyday existence and how people became drawn into a consumerist lifestyle,” says Krzykowski. “Looking at the Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? and comparing it with the domestic objects and furniture produced today, one realizes that not a lot has changed in the past 60 years.”

Domestic Appeal will feature newly commissioned, one-of-a-kind and limited-edition pieces—all unconventional, yet contemporary suggestions for the household—made by designers, artists and architects who apply their individual perception of materialism to the work they produce.

For example, Dimitri Bähler’s “Monolith Vertical” and “Monolith Horizontal” are ceramic architectones, born out of innovative experiments with stoneware and glaze, scale and structure. The simple volumes are based on human postures—standing and sitting—with “Monolith Vertical” functioning as a sculptural bar table and “Monolith Horizontal” doubling as both serving plate and objet.

Like Bähler’s monoliths, material was the driving force behind Ferréol Babin’s series of colorful table lamps. While the form of each lamp is familiar, it’s the unexpected textures – including lacquered and pigmented Jesmonite, fiberglass, and plastic particles – that makes each object “attractive or repulsive,” in Babin’s words, depending on the viewer’s interpretation.

Bertille Laguet’s cast aluminum floor lamp is another familiar form. The “Caleo” lamp (which means “glow” in Latin) resembles an iron radiator and can operate as the hearth of a room, with its diffused, indirect light evoking a sense of warmth.

Andy and Dave’s composition of high back chairs and a single dining table seeks to create a pseudo-urban dining room experience. Like the irrationally expressive skyscrapers of a contemporary city, the height and personality of the chairs creates an imaginary context for a person to temporarily inhabit. Engineered out of foam and plastic laminate, the pieces embrace a technological naiveté that merges ubiquitous materials with an aesthetic fluidity.

The work in Domestic Appeal is not for mass consumption, but rather a means to challenge and conceptualize life and progress. Each designer’s thoughtfully executed creation seeks to find a new approach to the domestic environment.

To accompany each show, Krzykowski will collaborate with a different artist to make a two-dimensional collage, so the compositions can live on. The collage for Part III is by Copenhagen-based creative studio Wang & Söderstrom.

Following Part III, Part IV, the final show in Collection #3, will open on May 4th, 2017 and will feature new and existing work exclusively made by women.