I Sit Therefore I Am
- The Art Fart
- May 10
- 2 min read
Greetings, this is your couch speaking: did you know that I, too, am art? Silly bipedal apes, always thinking only of yourselves. Rarely do you consider those special creatures that cradle your tuckus while you’re watching the boob tube & eating chips. I’m covered in crumbs! The disrespect!
While you were out, I went & visited some of my more stylish brethren at the Museum of Arts & Design in New York. Finally, I said to myself, couch that I am, my kind are being given their due! Though, frankly, I began having my doubts if they even were my brethren at all. I began to suspect, in fact, that they may be from another planet, one full of functional nonsense & brilliant clashes of metals, beads, & colors. Sometimes I think all couches originated in outer space; it’s the only logical conclusion to sentient furniture on Earth. The Haas brothers’ designs in this fabulously lighthearted retrospective (appropriately titled “The Uncanny Valley”) are like Lalanne rolled in a spritely nonsense forest on a cartoon claymation planet akin to something out of Adventure Time, replete with little creepy crawlies & a friendly, furry giant or two. I’d like to visit that forest, I think, & take a seat myself.
It’s something especially appreciated in New York City, or any city, really: a place to sit. There is a kind of delicious irony in creating an object that you can sit on, but that nobody in their right mind would sit on (those devilish Haas brothers!). These creatures are simultaneously precious & ridiculous, flouting their preciousness by being so darn silly. On their planet, everyone is a seat for everyone else. It would make sense that the only ones worthy of having a seat on these furniture beings are other furniture beings. If we sealed them in the museum forever, they might grow roots & turn the whole city into a jungle, or they might grow wings & fly back to their home planet. Should we lock the doors & see? I hope you find your way in!
—Your Couch
Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley is on view at the Museum of Arts & Design through August 2026. Images courtesy of MAD.
