Victorian Railings Chair
Armchair
1986 (made)
1986 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Before coining the term ‘Creative Salvage’ with Mark Brazier-Jones and Nick Jones, Tom Dixon had been involved in the music business. The genesis of this chair was the DIY attitude they had embraced through outfitting empty warehouses, which were used as nightclubs, with salvaged items.
Tom Dixon first learnt to weld in Paul Richman’s garage in Brixton and ‘fell in love with the molten metal and the speed at which [he] could stick things together’. This chair has a regal yet irreverent bearing, and is made from pieces of nineteenth-century iron railings, legs from a stove and a manhole cover for a seat. The use of salvaged industrially-produced elements in an attempt to realise a classic design, at a time when Britain’s industrial output had been sharply curtailed, can be seen as a political statement.
Tom Dixon first learnt to weld in Paul Richman’s garage in Brixton and ‘fell in love with the molten metal and the speed at which [he] could stick things together’. This chair has a regal yet irreverent bearing, and is made from pieces of nineteenth-century iron railings, legs from a stove and a manhole cover for a seat. The use of salvaged industrially-produced elements in an attempt to realise a classic design, at a time when Britain’s industrial output had been sharply curtailed, can be seen as a political statement.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Victorian Railings Chair (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Wrought and cast iron architectural features, welded together and painted. |
| Brief description | Victorian Railings Chair, Designed by Tom Dixon, 1986 |
| Physical description | Armchair made from wrought and cast iron architectural salvage welded together. The back rises high and appears to consist of wrought iron 19th century railings, as do the legs. The tops of the front legs are covered by shorter legs from a stove or workbench. There is a stretcher across the front legs made from a pipe. The seat is formed from an iron or steel manhole cover. The legs are painted white, and there are also traces of paint on the seat. The material used to weld the elements together appears to be a soft lead/tin solder. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Production type | Unique |
| Marks and inscriptions | 'THE BURCO' (On the tops of both of the 'stove' legs.) |
| Object history | Purchased. Acquisition registered file number 2011/422 |
| Historical context | The chair is a result of Mark Brazier-Jones, Nick Jones and Tom Dixon’s mid-1980s exhibition on Kensington High Street titled Creative Salvage. The show was inspired by their participation in the creative DIY attitude of the underground music industry which they had previously been involved in, where they would outfit empty industrial spaces with salvaged décor In the catalogue for the V&A exhibition British Design 1948-2012: Innovation in the Modern Age, Dixon, in reference to Creative Salvage, states that ‘it seemed like a fantastic way to make money: very chaotic and definitely influenced by the do-it-yourself attitude of the music business… [it] had a distinctive aesthetic. It was very rusty. It was quite pointed, jagged and dangerous. It was highly impractical and bits would often fall off. It was irreverent, but had lots of character’. |
| Summary | Before coining the term ‘Creative Salvage’ with Mark Brazier-Jones and Nick Jones, Tom Dixon had been involved in the music business. The genesis of this chair was the DIY attitude they had embraced through outfitting empty warehouses, which were used as nightclubs, with salvaged items. Tom Dixon first learnt to weld in Paul Richman’s garage in Brixton and ‘fell in love with the molten metal and the speed at which [he] could stick things together’. This chair has a regal yet irreverent bearing, and is made from pieces of nineteenth-century iron railings, legs from a stove and a manhole cover for a seat. The use of salvaged industrially-produced elements in an attempt to realise a classic design, at a time when Britain’s industrial output had been sharply curtailed, can be seen as a political statement. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | W.16-2011 |
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| Record created | July 12, 2011 |
| Record URL |
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