Luam Melake

Aug 22

Written By Admin

MEDIATORS / CODEBREAKERS

“America has an alienation problem from which many other societal ills spring,” says Luam Melake, who believes that the social media of the digital age are destructive forces. Divergently, she creates furniture that encourages personal and emotional engagement, transforming ordinary interactions into intimate moments. The various positions one can take on her pieces—inclined or upright, relaxed or attentive—suggest active or passive stances, and these variations allow users to favor or evade eye contact, engage in casual chats or emotional discussions, meditate or confess. The resulting dynamics, capable of “furnish- ing feelings” (the title of her 2023 solo exhibition at R & Company), promote new ways of connecting with others.

When it comes to materials, Melake is no Luddite. Her signature urethane and polyurethane foam technique is inspired by the experiments of late 1960s Italian Radicals, but updated to reflect twenty-first-century concerns about sustainability, which she has explored in her position as director of research at the Healthy Materials Lab at Parsons School of Design. Melake’s most recent design, the Barber Chair for the Black in Design collection by CB2, is inspired by the vinyl seating of Harlem barber shops, with additional histori- cism gleaned from French tubular steel designs of the 1920s. Melake writes, “The chair itself is a stand-in for an entire community—a social space and a ritual that’s a part of the Black experience.”

B. 1986, San Diego, CA
Lives and works in New York, NY

luammelake.com