When the British designer Jane Atfield first created her now-iconic RCP2 chair in 1992, it was groundbreaking. Austere in form and made from recycled high density polyethylene board derived from plastic bottles, the chair almost appears painted because of its speckled, multi-coloured surface. The board was made by pressing and...
New York gallerist Emma Scully revisits the groundbreaking design of Jane Atfield’s RCP2 recycled plastic chair, on the 30th anniversary of its creation
When the British designer Jane Atfield first created her now-iconic RCP2 chair in 1992, it was groundbreaking. Austere in form and made from recycled high density polyethylene board derived from plastic bottles, the chair almost appears painted because of its speckled, multi-coloured surface. The board was made by pressing and heating plastic chips so that the fragments and shards were maintained in its final state.
‘Through the radical honesty of its evocative and colorful materiality, the former life of the RCP2 chair as post-consumer waste is brilliantly exposed. Its aesthetic speaks volumes to the meaning behind Jane’s statement on consumer culture and climate change as it relates to design,’ says the New York gallerist, Emma Scully, who has commissioned new limited-edition colours of the chair to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
Elaborating on the chair’s design, which itself was inspired by Gerrit Rietveld’s 1923 Military Side Chair, Atfield recalls, ‘During my time studyingat the RCA in the early 1990s, I was looking for ways to connect furniture with wider political issues when I came across a sample of recycled plastic that a friend had picked up at a New York trade fair.
She continues, ‘In the 90s, eco-design was somewhat marginalized and often seen as an eccentricity or a leftover from the hippy movement. At that time, the emphasis was on status and style-driven design, which I felt alienated from.
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