The Art Newspaper

Pharrell on war (and his new chair)

By The Art Newspaper. From In The Frame
Published online: 17 March 2010

US record producer Pharrell Williams is not just a hip hop supremo; the dapper rap star is fast becoming an art world fixture, co-producing a blingtastic oyster shell-like piece (The Simple Things) last year with Japanese superstar artist Takashi Murakami. Pharrell is also a dab hand at furniture design, launching a new chair at the Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery in Paris (by appointment from 30 March). This particular objet d'art, entitled The Tank, is based on the theme of war. Pharrell's accompanying poem, from which we feel duty bound to publish an excerpt:

I’m standing in the mirror...Shadow boxing...Kicking ass....And I thought, how laughable the macho version of me...Ha...But could I be?..."Then what must it be like to be young and serve?"..."What if you couldn’t pay your tuition?"... "What if it is simply family tradition?"..."What if you thought it was the right thing to do?"...If we would spend "love" and "time" like we do "money", we’d never go broke...But then again who am I trying to fool or what am I trying to fix? I’m just a guy in the mirror trying to imagine what it must feel like to be young....headed into war...I’m sorry, how rude of me...I’ve left you standing...I’m sorry, please do...Have a seat.—Pharrell Williams