50 Manga Chairs by Nendo
Updated: Jan 28, 2020
Friedman Benda and Nendo, inc. present 50 Manga Chairs. The installation of polished aluminum chairs will make its European premier at Basilica Minore di San Simpliciano, in conjunction with Salone del Mobile Milano, April 12A17, 2016 and its American premiere in a solo exhibition at the Friedman Benda gallery in New York, September 8 – October 15, 2016.
With this exhibition, Nendo abstracts archetypes of manga comics. Manga consist of a series of frames on a single sheet of paper that creates a sequence. The chairs are happy, distressed, embarrassed, surprised; they leap and bound, zoom past, or slowly slink away. Each chair has its own personality, allowing it to stand on its own or, when placed next to the others, to become part of a collective narrative. A different configuration creates a different story; the chairs come alive in a symphonious display of Nendo’s playful Japanese design. According to Nendo, the mirror finish generates new spatial layers as the mirror surface reflects the real world, just like manga does. 50 Manga Chairs is Friedman Benda’s third solo show with Nendo and the Japanese design group’s most ambitious body of work to date.
