Feeling lonely? Wish you had someone to cuddle up with? Well, a British furniture designer might have just the solution for you (that won’t involve getting an account on Match.com). Introducing from Studio 9191, “A Body of Skin” line…
These seats aren’t made out of real human flesh, they’re just leather, but the fleshiest leather you ever sank into. Their creator, Gigi Barker, didn’t want the odd shapes of her meat seats to conjure what the experience of sitting in them would, but everything else did, “That made the viewers question how to interact with the shapes and to form their own conclusion”.
Gigi created the chairs by tracing a man’s midriff and then, “abstracted the shapes of his form so as to remove some of the immediacy of such a literal representation and allow the viewer to form their own conclusions”. She sculpted the models in clay, then created the seats themselves out of silicone because it “reacts to our bodies, matching our body temperature as well”. She implanted pheromones and aftershave in the seats and then covered them with molding leather with the suede section facing out to complete the effect.
Your choices for purchase are a two-part seat ($2500) or a smaller seat ($750) but more are on the way. Gigi even made and wore a dress out of the material for the opening night of her show. “Work regarding the human body is very personal and we all have a very immediate reaction to it so the reactions have reflected this. I have my own personal relationship with it, which is based on my own personal history. Just as someone else will. I think this project is more about the people and the bodies rather than the skin itself,” said Gigi.
This seems like a pretty niche market for seats…until you think about Japan. Have you seen the full body pillows of the girls from anime they’ve got now…
I’m just saying…million dollar idea. You can write me a check later, Gigi. I’ll just try not to picture anyone actually ENJOYING one. Creepy.