Interlaced on porcelain stools, or crafted in wicker and clutching around armchairs, hands are being used to make sculptural statements – from the deeply sensuous to the strangely sci-fi.
Why are artists and designers making furniture so “handsy”? Hands are everywhere in design: on lamps, tables, chairs and mirrors; in wicker and ceramic; grabbing, touching and gesticulating. The results range from playful to unsettling. “I was always obsessed with the hands in Rodin’s sculptures — and the emotion that can be displayed through singular body parts,” says LA-based artist Vincent Pocsik, whose furniture featuring hands was on show with gallery Nazarian / Curcio at Frieze Los Angeles in February. While Pocsik also depicts ears and feet, hands are particularly expressive. “I understand more through my hands and touching than I do through any other sense — so in that way it’s a bit of a self-portrait,” he says. In “Bench with Lemons Hands and Ears” (2024), the carved walnut frame morphs into surreal disembodied ears, arms and hands caught in the act of picking lemons. It’s like a Hieronymus Bosch painting. The motif of hands picking fruit recurs in Pocsik’s work, drawing on his past; he grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, where his grandparents had planted pear and plum trees. Meanwhile, “Remember Your Hands” (2024), an elegant mirror integrating carved hands and foliage, draws on the memory of his mother telling him to “remember your hands” when he felt anxious as a child. “It was about focusing on this singular body part and remembering your own body — a kind of mindfulness.”
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