Just What is it by Matylda Krzykowski

Have the consumer-grade objects that furnish our homes really changed all that much in the past 60-years? Internationally-recognised “design provocateur” Matylda Krzykowski (profiled in TLmag25) explores this question in her Just What is it exhibition at Chamber NYC (on view till 3 December). Basing her strategic selection of contemporary art and design objects with reference to Richard Hamilton’s seminal 1956 Just What is that Makes Today’s Homes so Different, so Appealing collage, the guest curator critiques similar treatments of late-Capitalist material culture, speculation and perhaps even hedonism. Though offering a damning assessment of our everyday objects – furniture as much as iconography – Kryzkowski hints at an evolution towards statement-based objects; material and conceptual aberrations that effectively subvert the mundane.

As the first in a series of four exhibitions, the curators first instalment takes the notion of assemblage to a scenographic aptitude. Works are placed as t0 establish different ‘interior’ scenario. Louie Rigano & Gil Müller’s high-performance silicone cord woven carpet plays host to Mischer’Traxler’s iconic Relumine Lapis & Lazuli Lamp, as well as Tina Roeder’s Blue Leather Shelf; all in hues of cobalt blue. Holding this setting together is Oskar Zieta’s new Emerald Green and Flamed Gold Sonar inflated-metal screens and Cryril Porchet’s large format Meeting photos – depicting a contemporary church. Have corporations become our new religions? Blending the definitions of art and design, she places wall-mounted steel tube sculptures by Rafal Dominik in dialogue with Pieterjan Ginckels ‘artistic’ maquette for the Ensor Dyson IV hand dryer.

Kryzkowski even dares to hang paintings on the wall. Based on her own prompt, Niek Hendrix applies oil and pencil to large panels; creating hyper-realistic montages that evoke our increased reliance on virtual image inquiries. While woven textiles by Design Displacement Group explore themes such as revenge, resurrection, love, and jealousy, Johen Holz’s bent neon glass tube lamps evoke the shape of jump ropes. Celestial and cosmic qualities beam through Os & OOs’ Syzygy Phases lamp, Studio Swine’s Metalic Geology cupboard, and a mechanised mirror by Florian Ziller and Fateheh Naderi. Material culture is perhaps best expressed in Nick van Woert’s almost nostalgic Lunch Meat plank sculpture. The wall-posed piece depicts the analog templates architects once used. Additionally, Martino Gamper’s Binnit series asks viewers to consider the banality of trash cans. Though setting a strong tone for the following exhibitions, Krzykowski employs an airy layout, allowing the white cube space to best spotlight the works on show.

Just What is it
Collection 3
till 3 December
Chamber NYC: 515 W. 23rd Street