Volume Gallery is an event-based gallery that focuses on American design, particularly emphasizing emerging contemporary designers. Volume Gallery has debuted a new body of work in Chicago, from Snarkitecture. A Chicago pop up art event, the exhibit is on view through June 13, 2012.

Snarkitecture’s first solo exhibition, Funiture presents new works and site-specific installations that come together to create a landscape of childlike wonderment. Snarkitecture designers Daniel Arsham and Alex Mustonen manipulate objects and materials, using familiar objects in unexpected and imaginative ways. Funiture explores our reality by deliberately creating confusion.

Courtesy of Volume Gallery.

In creating an intended confusion, many functional pieces appear in ways that are opposite to their intention, causing a double take. A cabinet (Break) that is cracked down the middle has two halves resting on squashed feet.

In creating the imaginative, some pieces appear in ways of impossible conditions. A floor lamp (Lean) leans into another floor lamp, the globes fused together, and a wood table (Pour) is suspended in collapse as a heavy stone infill rests on top.

Funiture is about an object’s relation to the architecture through installation. The intention of the installation is to engage the architecture in a playful manner and for the familiar world of the everyday to collide with the unpredictable and magical world of Snarkitecture.

Courtesy of Volume Gallery.

Volume Gallery releases editions and publication, and organizes exhibitions that showcase the work of American designers to regional, national and international audiences. The gallery asks critical questions of what it means to be an American designer in a culture that is becoming increasing global, while also examining the American experience.

Snarkitecture’s Funiture is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through June 13, 2012. The exhibition is located at 845 W Washington Blvd, 5 FL.

Emmaline Niendorf is an Integrated Marketing Associate with Otherwise Incorporated.