Red No 04 Cardboard Tape Box by Wieki Somers

As a response to the extremely fast growing metropolis Beijing, in which temporality and obsolescence seem to menace each and every object, Wieki Somers focused on the small things of daily street life. She observed that in the most varied parts of the capital customized seats were used by people such as security guards, street vendors or rickshaw drivers. She found herself fascinated by the many charming details of these basic chairs the way the various materials and parts were connected and by the relationship to their respective makers. The stools, probably cherished for a lifetime, testify to a long history in which both the maker and the user leave their traces.
Studio Wieki Somers purchased some of these stools and cast them in aluminium. A way of paying homage, and an answer to Chinas famous culture of copying.