Chairs Don’t Cry

Friedman Benda is pleased to present, Chairs Don’t Cry, Lithuanian designer Barbora Žilinskaitė’s inaugural solo exhibition opening at the gallery’s Los Angeles location.

      Stifled by the constraints of a traditional design education at the outset of her career, Žilinskaitė sought to distance herself from boundaried definitions in the field. Investigating relationships between owners and their objects, she questions human-centered worldviews and consumption habits. Seeking to create a bridge between people and things, she urges the user to relate to their objects as if they were entering into a dialogue between two equal parties. Imbuing design with representative figurative shapes as a mode of generating agency, Žilinskaitė experiments with brightly colored dyes and surrealistic organic corporeal forms crafted from her signature medium of reclaimed sawdust.

“Human-like features attract us, evoke emotions and feelings, they create this weird still friendly atmosphere,” she explains, “but also human-like objects become more significant – and that helps me to advocate for them.”