OTTOM A N EMPIR E
Jessi Reaves, Rules
Around Here
(Waterproof Shelf), 2016Jessi Reaves,
Brown Cabinet, 2017Jessi Reaves, Crust
Bucket Comes to Town
(Slipper Chair), 2016Jessi Reaves, Walking
and Looking for You, 2017Moments after the Maison Margiela Artisanal
show in January, artist Jessi Reaves stood
shyly to one side of the crowd. Tall with ine
features and an American freshness relecting
her Oregon roots, she was the last person
one expected to ind behind the raw, hulking
installation in the centre of the room.
Reaves is the irst artist that Margiela’s
creative director, John Galliano, has ever
asked to present a new work as a backdrop to
a collection. Discovering her artwork in New
York late last year, he was stunned. ‘There is
an uncanny similarity to our creative process,’
he says. ‘A connection, a vibration that drew
me instinctively to her world.’
Originally an upholsterer, Reaves is gaining
attention for her deconstructed, furniture-
inspired sculptures, some of which appeared
at the 2017 Whitney Biennale. She is also
an admirer of Galliano’s work, which she
referenced with a chair at London gallery
Herald St, upholstered in a newsprint fabric
copied from a dress he designed for Dior.
The amorphous, even disturbing elements
of Reaves’ creations for Margiela served as an
intriguing counterpoint to Galliano’s pieces,
which were conceived to morph into dazzling
colour when photographed with a lash and
viewed through a mobile phone screen. For
each of the two rooms where the show was
held, Reaves created a low central element –
an ottoman grown monstrous and out
of control, wending its way around pillars
and behind chairs where magazine editors
and fashion buyers were seated. It glowedmenacingly in the dim pre-show light, before
turning shades of brown, murky yellow
or intestinal pink when the lights came up.
Reaves’ technique was simple: fabric
stapled over foam onto a wooden frame.
Elements typically hidden in upholstery,
such as staples or stitches, were mutated to
the surface as decoration. Brushstrokes were
visible, as were the odd stain or rip. After
testing paint on a variety of low-tech fabrics,
mostly vinyl, she stitched them together into
a chaotic patchwork. ‘Painting a piece of
furniture is the simplest way of transforming
it; it’s kind of a cheap home trick,’ she says.
Reaves gave the ottoman top billing,
enguling classic pieces such as a Marcel
Breuer ‘Cesca’ chair. ‘I ind the iconic nature
of the chair kind of boring. These ottomans
are overgrown blobby forms that have
swallowed other pieces of furniture.’
At places, the artwork jutted out to
become seating for the show. Among those
chosen to sit on it were three of Reaves’
colleagues from New York, artists Kevin
Beasley, Toyin Ojih Odutola and Susan
Cianciolo. Odutola admitted that she felt
nervous about sitting on a work of art. The
photographers on the riser had no such
hesitation – as soon as the show ended they
unceremoniously packed up their gear on it.
Which is ine with Reaves. She doesn’t
consider her creations overly precious. ‘I feel
indiferent about whether or not people sit.
They aren’t missing the work if they don’t
Photography: top left and right, © Jessi Reaves, courtesy of the artist and Bridget Donahue, NYC. Bottom left and right, © Jessuse it. Knowing they can is the same thing.’
i Reaves,
courtesy of Herald St, London and Bridget Donahue, NYC, photography Andy Keate. Runway photography courtesy of Maison MargielaWRITER: AMY SERAFINThe young American artist Jessi Reaves is generating serious
momentum with her mutant deformations of classic modernist
furniture. We probably shouldn’t like them but we really do. So does
John Galliano, who tasked Reaves with creating site-speciic,
and slightly sinister, oozing ottomans for the Maison Margiela S/S18
couture show in Paris. On the next six pages we present Reaves’
exclusive photomontage portfolio of her scenery-chewing show stealers
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Portfolio