Canadian designer Craig Alun Smith has designed a pair of chairs called Wank, which are currently on display as part of the 2-Chairs exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in Winnipeg, Canada. Canadian designer Craig Alun Smith has designed a pair of chairs called Wank, which are currently on display as part of the 2-Chairs exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in Winnipeg, Canada.

"The 'white' chair is missing a leg possibly due to an roadside IED bomb and is bleeding oil," explains Alun Smith. The chairs are made from imbuya and sugar maple wood.

The following text is from the designer:

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WANK

"WANK is a metaphor for the relationship between the 1st and “3rd world”, how they are interdependent and how the 3rd world "props up" the 1st. It also speaks to the war for oil in Iraq, the "white" chair is missing a leg possibly due to an roadside IED bomb and is bleeding oil. The materials are Imbuya for the dark able bodied chair, and Sugar Maple for the light, handicapped chair.

Imbuya is a Brazilian hardwood from very large trees. We've ensured that this lumber came from a tree that was the lifeblood of a 3000 year old culture. Three flora species and eleven fauna species were made extinct in harvesting this tree. It also left 60 of the 80 villagers, with no shelter or cultural/religious touchstone in the centre of their village. The wood is a beautiful dark golden brackish brown, with interesting grain. The maple is pure as freshly fallen snow on an upper middle class baby's bum. - In reality WANK is a joke, a commentary on the current state of design and the trend of designers to create pointless "one line" design objects and passing them off as art.

Craig Alun Smith ( b. 1969, UK ) prefers the brief biographical statement—“a Designer / once a Soldier / now a Parade.” Though evocative of Smith’s personality, the brevity of the statement does not elude to his being among Canada’s most successful designers internationally. Following his service in the Canadian Armed Forces and United Nations Smith founded the influential Canadian-based design studio Plastic Buddha Inc. in 1998 developing product design and strategies for some of the worlds top design manufacturers including Alessi and Herman Miller. Smith is currently Director of Product Design for Cocoon Branding, where he recently won the Annual Design Review, Design Distinction Award for his work on Rooster Technologies assistive lighting device. His work has been featured in numerous national and international publications including Wallpaper (named in the top ten young designers worldwide), Surface (Best 100 young designers worldwide), The Globe and Mail (Top young Canadians shaping the future), Wall Street Journal and most recently Playboy magazine.

Price $14,000