By Elise Taylor
Are you one of the 27 million people who follow Bella Hadid on Instagram? Then you may have seen a recent post: the model, sitting at a white desk with a jagged hole in the middle of it. (“There’s a new captain in town,” she wrote.) And while, yes, she’s showing off some seriously long legs, she’s also showing off a serious piece of design.
It’s the work of Daniel Arsham, a New York-based artist. He’s currently the talk of Design Miami, the global design fair that descends on Miami Beach every December. With gallery Friedman Benda, he created an avant-garde living room filled with curiosities. The “Jaffe Desk”—a nod to Norman Jaffe, the modern architect who designed Arsham’s home—is made from eroded white resin. That process explains the cragged crater, which Arsham annotated with “Hole Pass Through.” The style is distinctly Arsham’s: fascinated with the idea of objects becoming obsolete, he creates “fossilized ‘future’ relics,” blending past, present, and future. Although that’s not to say the desk isn’t meant to enjoy. “It’s all comfortable and designed to be used!” Arsham said on Instagram of his displayed work. “Don’t be shy!”
Hadid didn’t just admire Arsham’s furniture at Design Miami: she also stopped by to see Balenciaga’s collaboration with designer Harry Nuriev: a transparent vinyl-covered couch stuffed with the brand’s unsold clothing. Nuriev posted a playful photo of the model lounging on his colorful creation. She rests her head on the pillow, surrounded by “Balenciaga” logos.
Was the model looking to do some fashionable furniture shopping, or just admiring all the artistry? Who knows. But Travis Scott did get his and Kylie Jenner’s daughter, Stormi Webster, the Campana x Kaws chair displayed at Design Miami in 2018, so anything is possible.
