Photo By Gail

Furniture is sometimes at its best design-wise when it doesn’t  take itself too seriously. Case in point: Alan Siegel’s irreverent Tongue Chair, designed in 1981. With its seat transformed into a wide-open mouth and a bright pink tongue playfully poking out, the chair turns an everyday piece of furniture into a a little piece of surrealist theater. The chair’s ‘face illusion’ is completed by a back support that forms a human nose, while two eyes can be seen along the curved upper back and armrest that continues to form the chairs front legs.

Siegel is known for his whimsical, anthropomorphic furniture, often incorporating human forms, facial features and body parts into functional objects. The result is furniture that seems to have a personality of its own — and the Tongue Chair looks like it  dares you to sit down on it.

This particular example belongs to the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, where I photographed it bedside in one of the mansion’s many art-filled bedrooms. Surrounded by more traditional furniture and  works of art, the mischievous chair provides a welcome reminder that good design always feels at home.