One skin, two familiar forms
A chair and a table usually announce themselves as separate things. Kokon gives them a shared outer surface, making their combined outline the first thing to notice.
The object here is MoMA's “Kokon” table-chair, numbered 836.2018 and dated 1999. The museum credits Jurgen Bey and describes a PVC-covered table and chair, given by Droog Design.1
Droog's 1997 Kokon family account credits Jan Konings and Jurgen Bey jointly. It describes old wooden furniture enclosed in a shrinking PVC covering, with different combinations giving the idea different forms.2
When the surface joins the objects
The covering changes the scale at which the furniture is easiest to read. Wood grain, joins and differences between pieces ordinarily help the eye find separate parts. A common outer surface puts more emphasis on volume and silhouette.
Droog describes the skin as taut and elastic around the existing frames. The furniture underneath continues to supply the shape, while the covering changes how those shapes meet the eye.2
That makes the transformation an act of connection. The earlier objects supply a structure and recognisable outlines; the new surface asks the viewer to follow them as one figure.
Two activities within one outline
A table-chair brings a place to sit and a surface for an activity into the same object. That combination differs from joining two chairs: it connects two kinds of furniture, each carrying a different everyday association.
The shared skin makes their relationship visible before the viewer sorts them back into familiar categories. Its continuous appearance encourages the eye to move across an area where one object might otherwise seem to end.
The chair still suggests a place to sit and the table a surface to use. The covering changes where one seems to end and the other begins.
