Basket chair by Isamu Noguchi and Isamu Kenmochi at ICFF

One of the things you must see if you happen to be in New York for ICFF this week– the Bamboo chair by the legendary American-Japanese sculptor and designer Isamu Noguchi and Japanese designer Isamu Kenmochi at the Noguchi Museum in the Queens until May 25, 2008. The chair is part of an exhibition titled Design: Isamu Noguchi and Isamu Kenmochi, designed way back in 1950 (Both being Isamu is just a coincidence).

But the original prototype was lost soon after and has only recently been recreated with the help of photographs. The chair’s frame is made of a looping, bent iron rod instead of wood, which gives the chair the look of two open-weave baskets, a pin cushion for the seat and a curving horizontal tube for the back, suspended on Hardoy’s butterfly chair frame. It was a perfect balance between Western modernism and Japanese craftsmanship.

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The Noguchi Museum is offering the chair in a limited edition of just 50 numbers in collaboration with Kenmochi Design Associates at the ICFF which opens to general public later today. After that check on the museum’s website (www.noguchi.org) for availability. Our guess is it’ll fly off the shelves pretty fast, even at a slightly astronomical price of $9,500 (Dhs 34,960).

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