Sunday, January 31, 2010

The Red Couch Project














20 comments:

h said...

Seems like a good idea for a coffee table book. Cool beans!

Happy Mute Monday!

you left and uncapped sharpie on the sofa! said...

it looks so at home at the dump! but the vest photo is the desert one. cool project.

HHM!!

Joanna Cake said...

LMAO! What a fabulous idea :) Happy MM x

Buzz Kill said...

That's pretty funny. I wonder if it's the same couch in all the different pictures? The one on the ice floe is my favorite.

Back in my college days, I stole an Sesame Street Ernie doll from a girl that lived in my dorm. We started taking Polaroids of Ernie in different places (he changed hands with other people in the dorm) and eventually he wound up back with the original owner. Years after college she would send us pictures of Ernie from around the country and Europe. So this is not a new idea but an interesting art form.

Happy MM!

Unknown said...

Fabulous and thought provoking. Such great choices!

fishy said...

Troll,
Someone gave Blowfish this book years ago. I tried to find it but no joy. Also frustrating that I could not find online some of the images I most remember. I think the red couch started as new and then they traveled around the country for the photo essay.

The Sharpie Sofa...now there's an idea! Get a muslin covered sofa and have fun with the Sharpies. It could be one of those life's journey projects because a couch is large. Or, if you were in a hurry to complete the project you could throw a Sharpie party and invite all your artsy friend to come help.

JCake,
Thanks!
But if you LYAO you might need a new avatar.

Buzz,
Did you photograph Ernie on a red couch? Good story, where is Ernie now? Where's the girl?

Mermaid,
I was all set to do Snoopy as the Red Baron flying his doghouse through misadventures of all sorts. I changed paths to avoid blogger jinx. Poor Snoopy, left out again!

Wishing good Monday to you each :-)

Pam said...

Love this and know that it is (or a variation thereof) a sort of trend now for fun photos of couples or families .... a sofa out in the middle of a field, etc. Would love to take some of those types of pics. Meanwhile, I saw on craigslist this weekend a sofa and chair that had been hand painted and was now for sale. Very Mary Englebreit, I thought. Will see if I can find it and post the link. Would love to know what your designer's eye thinks of such things.

Pam said...

http://oklahomacity.craigslist.org/fuo/1578487114.html

Link to painted sofa. Cool idea, but don't think I could go for it.

Also, we receive a Flat Stanley every year up here ... some school kid sends a paper-doll type of guy that we are supposed to take photos of ...

Jenny said...

Striking photos and I like the choice of red for the project. I also like seeing it get more dirty/beat up as it traveled.

Clev-ah pick for Mute Monday.

Happy MM!

moi said...

Dang it. Now I want a red velvet sofa. Sigh. It never ends with me. Happy Mute Monday!

Katie's Design Perspective said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
fishy said...

Boxer,
It is an interesting visual analogy of what happens to us as we travel through life. Now if I could just afford a trip to the re-upholsterers ...

Moi,
they make red velvet dog sofas too :-)

MinorityReport said...

I didn't know about that...very cool. Thanks for sharing. Happy MM.

boneman said...

The fellow with the stone house, the geese and the scotch...is that Ardlair?
I'de be the one with the dog. They are always good enough to get on the couch in this house.
Happy MM

Karl said...

Good evening Fishy,

Neat idea, but from a logistics point of view Ernie would be a lot easier.

Happy Mute Monday

By the way, have you looked at the retro Ford Mustang or Dodge Challenger, either one might fill that need for speed you mentioned in your last post. Purchased used, they might not be too pricey.

Kymical Reactions said...

this was so freekin cool, Fishy. My favorite so far.

Happy MM.

fishy said...

Karl,
logistics?
Not as hard to deal with as the unions!
In the book there is a photo of a parking lot full of white Datsun 280Z's. The photographer needed to move just 2 cars to set the couch in place and take the shot. The hard part? It took FIVE days for the union to grant permissison to move the two cars.

Kym,
it might be with a trip to the Library to see the entire book.
Title: The Red Couch
A Portrait of America
published 1984
Photographers: Kevin Clarke & Horst Wackerbarth

There are amazing shots on Wall Street, with the space shuttle, with Heff and some of the bunnies, with JREwing watching himself on tv, in slaughter houses, in Vegass, at Americas first Solar One Plant in the Mojave on the Iditarod.
An amazing cross section really. Sadly, I was unable to download many of the photos I remembered.

Minority and Boney,
Happy Monday!

Markus said...

Lern more about The Red Couch project:
http://www.facebook.com/theredcouch
or
http://www.the-red-couch.com

sectional sofa said...

We ordered the eight piece set and are very happy with the look and comfort of the furniture. I'm giving them five stars for the look, comfort and amazing customer service. There is one design consideration that might be nice to be addressed. We get a great deal of wind on our deck and the cushions want to fly off. While the cushions have velcro between the bottoms and backs to mate them, it would be nice if there was some way to attach the cushions to the actual chairs. Ours is a unique consideration though as I would guess that most homes don't experience 30 mph breezes like we do. We were especially happy with Ohana's customer service. Our order came short one chair, so we contacted them directly three days ago. The new chair will be arriving tomorrow. Now that is fabulous customer service! We have another deck that we will buy another Ohana set for based on how much we like this one and how well they took care of us.

Carolyn Shashank said...

Yes this couch is somewhat nice looking, but its a pain in the ass to put together and didn't send all the hardware. When you finally get the number to this company, someone really rude answers the phone with the attitude of omg why are you calling, not to mention you can't even understand what they say when they answer the phone, when I asked for the manager she is no better! Not one apology for the inconvience and they make you go out of your way to send an email with all the information so you can get the missing parts they forgot to give you..small sofa don't buy this couch especially not from this company, totally not worth it and a total headache waiting to happen!