Dezeen Magazine

The Tank by Pharrell Williams

A chair designed by American recording artist and producer Pharrell Williams will be on show at Gallerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris next week.

Called The Tank, the piece consists of a leather seat on a plexiglass base that references caterpillar tracks.

Photographs are by Guillaume Ziccarelli, courtesy Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin.

Here's a little text from the gallery and some words by Williams:


The Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery presents, on apointment, from 30 March the new design creation of Pharrell Williams, a chair entitled The Tank.

After completing the chair Perspective, conceived as a reflection on love, and the sculpture The Simple Things, a collaboration with the artist Takashi Murakami, Pharrell Williams tackles the theme of war.

How does a young person decide to engage in a battle that does not seem to be hers/his ?

I’m standing in the mirror...
Shadow boxing...
Kicking ass....
And I thought, how laughable the macho version of me...
Ha...
But could I be?
It takes guts and a reason... or is innate?
Is it simply in man’s nature to fight and show his colors of heart... the scars of experience?
Things he does not like...
So he...
Fights..
One man once said, »war is not the answer»...
But those of us born to this world, ambitious with the taste of change may not always
Understand the social methods of the same.
Instead, we seek and cure our curiosities with sharing our views by any means of a vessel; expression.
We believe Art is the alteration of existence and that which provokes thought.
So, in reference to Marvin Gaye’s brilliant question, I asked myself, «what was the question?»...
When my thought was met with a silence that was so thick it could be cut, it made me ask myself this.....
»Then what must it be like to be young and serve?»...»What if you couldn’t pay your tuition?»...
»What if it is simply family tradition?»..»What if you thought it was the right thing to do?»...
Wow, to sit in the seats of our youth (as well as others)... fighting for a series of reasons most of
Which can be argued and debated but being young and having your own reason?...
Whoa.
To wake up and make up your mind that you’ve found a reason to stand amongst the brave
Where loss at least on some levels are inevitable, even if it’s just time..
The only answer is that which is square.
«Intention» divided by «behavior» which is then divided by «reality» should equal to one’s truth.
Yes, our government, too, should exercise this regularly...
If we would spend «love» and «time» like we do «money», we’d never go broke...
But then again who am I trying to fool or what am I trying to fix?
I’m just a guy in the mirror trying to imagine what it must feel like to be young... headed into war...
I’m sorry, how rude of me...
I’ve left you standing...
I’m sorry, please do...
Have a seat.

Pharrell WILLIAMS