Design

An Ode to Abandoned Chairs

Have a seat.
CoLab Radio

Aditi Mehta was in India two years ago for a family wedding when she wandered down a street in Jodhpur and came across the kind of totally inexplicable scene you can only find in a chaotic city. Sitting atop a mess of construction rubble on the side of the road were two battered red-velvet armchairs, looking, Mehta thought, just like an inseparable elderly couple.

She pulled out her camera and took a photo, because why wouldn’t you photograph that? The sight was hilarious and mysterious. Who had been lounging on these things in the midst of a construction site? And how did they get here? The chairs were both out of context and unsurprising; abandoned street furniture is part of the scenery of cities everywhere.