0.76 degrees chair by puneet gupta

0.76 degree chair image © designboom

this chair is making it into major newspapers in india. 23-year-old indian artist puneet gupta’s large steel coffee seat – as reported in the hindustian times and in several other media – is an art installation that utilizes water pots at the back. the chair is called 0.76 degrees because the earth’s average surface temperature has risen by this amount since 1950. the climate chair ‘0.76’ has been presented in designboom’s asia now exhibition at dwell on design in los angeles in june this year.

the piece is a comment on the scarcity and growing impurity of drinking water in india. ‘it’s hotter than ever! the arctic ice caps are melting… eco systems are changing… where to begin? a growing number of 62,168 books on climate change is listed on amazon.com ! lohachara, a part of the sundarban delta near the state of west bengal was once home to 10,000 indians. with the increase of the sea level it has been washed away from the face of the earth,’ gupta says.

0.76 degree chair image © designboom

‘symbolically, the crystal studded seat should represent a false reality – (we are living in a fake world and the truth is that we are doing our best to ignore the reality)‘ gupta says, ‘when I was designing the chair, I wanted to show the striking difference between ‘perceived reality’ and ‘actual reality’ that exists in today’s world.’

close-up of the back image © designboom

‘the backside of the chair is made of steel pots that decrease in size and the numbers of taps increase as we go towards the bottom. as the size of pots is decreasing, the icons of animals and plants engraved on them are also fading away, which shows that resources aredying slowly,’ gupta explains.

the delhi-based designer, who is a NIFT graduate, opposes customs of placing indian vessels in a balanced order (with the largest at the bottom with, progressively, the smallest on top).

asia now exhibition (30)