News:
Cranbrook Art Museum acquires Trace chair by Cody Norman
January 2024
We are thrilled to announce the addition of Norman’s Trace chair to the permanent collection of the Cranbrook Art Museum. Joining important design past and present from the likes of Charles and Ray Eames, Florence Knoll, Chris Schanck, Jack Craig, Trace chair now resides in the museum’s Plaza Vault.
Trace chair: More than meets the eye
With Trace chair Norman re-traces the origin story of the ubiquitous plastic Adirondack chair. Creating a new object with the material of discarded chairs collected from alleys and dumpsters, Norman not only re-animates the plastic “trash” but also the history and intention of the original Adirondack form, itself having become de-valued over time.
To delve into the Trace chair, we asked Norman a few questions…
IMWG: What are the numbers?
The Trace chair was made from seven broken adirondack chairs. It took myself and two assistants to manipulate the chair into different positions to catch the plastic. Imagine a glassblowing team, but working with plastic, all working together to spray water to chill the plastic, add different colors, and shift the chair in a moment's notice. We extruded around 30+ lbs of plastic around a welded steel frame.
IMWG: What was the most challenging part of the process? How did solving it inform your approach to future works?
Trying to construct the piece in a way where we could safely move it while the plastic was hot was quite challenging. Also, trying to maintain directionality of the melting plastic and predicting how the colors would transition was a constant battle. From these challenges I learned how to adapt my process to work in smaller sections that can be joined post-plastic extruding.
IMWG: How do you plan to carry out the intention of this first chair into a series?
I’ve been collecting plastic objects in alleys for the past three years and the Adirondack chairs were the most common object I found. From this process of collecting and documenting the journey of these Adirondack chairs I started to do the same with kids' plastic furniture and toys.
I’ve been considering making objects referencing their past use similar to the Trace chair. My goal for 2024 is to start collecting broken iconic chairs and other design objects and making reanimated versions of those.
IMWG: What are the challenges and triumphs of working with PP#5?
Working with post-consumer PP #5 plastic is difficult because it flows more like water rather than a waxy rubber like HDPE #2. Companies tend to use additives and proprietary blends for their objects that when shredded and mixed together start to react unpredictably. Imagine a consistent flow of hot plastic that suddenly transitions to stretched taffy and back to watery smooth plastic. This makes it hard to predict where it will fall or how it will pool and flow. Although this might be terrible for industry, for me it provides the element of chance and moments to improvise and embrace the fibrous textures next to glossy smooth sections.
