Fake Armchair
Artist
Danful Yang
Born in Shanghai in 1980
Title
Fake
Date
2007
Materials
Stained and varnished wood, wood covered in gold leaf, fragments of handbag knock-offs (leather, vinyl, cotton, Ultrasuede, polyester, polyester velour, lacquered metal rings, brass, and chrome-plated metal chains, clasps and rings)
Dimensions
94.8 x 76.5 x 77.3 cm
Publisher
Produced by XYZ Design, Shanghai
Credits
Purchase, the Museum Campaign 1988-1993 Fund, inv. 2009.10.1-2
Collection
Decorative Arts and Design
The work of the XYZ collective often parodies globalization and “Made in China” from a Chinese perspective. Here, the designer Danful Yang plays on the concept of imitation (shanzhai) by brilliantly joining a Louis XVI-style golden frame and a traditional Chinese wooden chair. The seat is covered in a patchwork of pieces of fake handbags, identifiable as knock-offs of originals by Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Burberry and Coach. Yang’s aesthetics of cultural hybridity refers not only to the current relationship between the West and China but also, in its reference to contemporary values and status symbols, to questions about how power morphs through time.
