POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

'Pepe' chair designed by Christopher Connell

Object No. 97/139/1

The Pepe chair was designed and manufactured in Australia in the mid 1990s. The chair’s distinctive design draws on the great tradition of the armless, high-backed upholstered chair, mixed with a pop culture reference to the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoons - the perky stance and high curving ‘tail’ recalls the features of Pepé Le Pew, the ever romantic skunk. The chair is eco-friendly, with chlorofluorocarbon-free materials used in its construction. If we try to compare this chair to the other household names of Australian furniture design, it presents both a departure and continuity. As a departure it explores new materials, and form. It is whimsical, organic, surreal and it is more discrete, presenting a small footprint. On the other hand, it continues the tradition set up by the other Australian modernists who saw the chance for the chair to be admired in its sculptural form from all angles in the new interiors of the second half of the twentieth century, with space, light and large glass walls. Campbell Bickerstaff, 2023