Mona Alcudia

Department: Contextual Design
Website: monaalcudia.com

The Peacock Chair

What: A new take on the famous peacock chair, putting the spotlight on its Southeast-Asian origins and the anonymity of craft labour.

Why: The peacock chair is a 1970s icon in the West, but its lesser known origins can be traced to prison work in the Philippines. In this project, it becomes a metaphor, highlighting the designer's personal sentiments of the Philippines being known for economical manufacturing and labour rather
than its design capabilities.

How: Mona Alcudia used second-hand wicker baskets to make own peacock chair. From this chair, you can watch her Karaoke installation of cliché images of the Philippines. The subtitles tell the story of the chair, of decolonisation and the Southeast-Asian identity.

“The chair is a symbol to initiate a discourse”