Starting in the month of November, Herman Miller has been holding a series of pop-up art installations at retailer showrooms in the region. Presented only in black and white by artists, these works are part of Herman Miller’s Black and White initiative aimed at underscoring “the cost of buying fakes,” and to encourage contributions to worthy social causes.

The unveiling of &Larry’s Togather art installation for Herman Miller at XTRA

In Singapore, Herman Miller has partnered with Larry Peh, Creative Director of award-winning design studio &Larry on the project with 100 per cent of the gross proceeds to go to the Children’s Cancer Foundation, the charity that Peh had picked for the campaign.

Alex Say, Sales Director (South East Asia) of Herman Miller giving a presentation on “the real cost of fakes”

Unveiled last Thursday, 26 November to specially invited guests at XTRA in Park Mall, the installation is made up of eight Eames Moulded Plywood Coffee Tables and a single Eames Moulded Plywood chair, all connected to one another in a sprawling configuration.

(Left) Larry Peh, Creative Director of &Larry; (right) Lim Choon Hong, founder and Managing Director of XTRA

In his presentation, Peh described the concept as being “very straightforward.”

“I was told to take anything from Herman Miller and reinterpret it anyway I wanted. [However, because the main message that Herman Miller wanted to convey was the issue of] piracy, I couldn’t ‘chop up’ the furniture, I couldn’t paint them, and I couldn’t change the way these furniture pieces had been designed.

“Eventually I took something that I really loved, this [Eames Moulded Plywood] table from Charles and Ray Eames that I face everyday at home… I looked at it and realised that just like charity and any [effort of] goodwill, it takes one person to take the lead and the rest slowly will follow. With that in mind, I set about to design this whole art piece linking eight tables together [with the Eames Moulded Plywood chair at the head of the line]. Why eight? Because I first came up with the name of the piece, ‘Togather’, and it has eight characters.

Close up of the Togather installation

While the installation may look simple, Peh explains that a lot of time was spent working on the structural support of the art piece to ensure that it would be stable to sit on.

The silent auction of &Larry’s Togather art installation is now on. 100 per cent of the gross proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Children’s Cancer Foundation.

In addition, 5 per cent of the gross proceeds from the purchase of items from the Charles & Ray Eames collection will also be donated to the Children’s Cancer Foundation.

Duration: 27 November – 31 January 2016
Where: XTRA, Park Mall

For more information on the Herman Miller Black & White campaign for positive change, visit https://www.xtra.com.sg/feature/Let-s-talk-Black-White-84.html