Size:
Rack (valet/boy): ø 60 cm x 43 cm x 160 cm
Basket (laundry basket): ø 60 cm x 43 cm x 45 cm
Material:
Solid French Oak, Brass, Rattan, Leather.
The Fishawy chairs are one of the most traditional popular chairs in the Mediterranean part of this world; they illustrate a tradition of interactions that not only belongs to the public realm but also insinuate a romantic slow moving world that we miss today.
The Fishawy is an artisanal mutation of the THONET, Vienna bistro chairs; the later appeared in New York City in the late 1800’s.
Since its first appearance and up till one hundred years later the chairs have gone through an infinite amount of iterations and updates to a point where it is hard to define the proportions and ergonomics of the initial Egyptian version. No rules applied, everyone felt entitled to act on it, and the chair belongs to the masses. The results vary depending on the levels of interventions. One simple thing that remained always the simple chair remained always a chair, sometimes innovative, sometimes disgraceful, but always a chair.
The Fishawy rack and basket intend to deliberately and consciously illustrate this distortion, by physically and conceptually distorting the chair in order to give it a new life, a new function that places it in the world of contemporary design and collectibles, while at the same time acknowledge the qualities of the initial chair and built on its structural rules.
The act of systematic vandalism and mutation did not only allow a new life and meaning for this typology, but also gave room to explore the mutated aesthetics and functions just like the initial influence, Vienna bistro chair by Thonet.