RIDING THE WAVE: A Mel Chin and ASU Furniture Design Student Collaboration

What do you get when students from Appalachian State University’s Furniture Design Program collaborate with internationally-recognized contemporary artist Mel Chin? Find out in RIDING THE WAVE: A Creative Collaboration, a special exhibition presented in conjunction with Mel Chin: SEA to SEE, on view November 5, 2022 - January 29, 2023.

Inspired by SEAQUAL INITIATIVE and Hickory’s furniture heritage, Mel Chin designed two concepts for chairs based on the sights and materials of the beach. He then collaborated with students from ASU’s Furniture Design Program to push the design concepts further. During the 12 week special topics course under the instruction of Professor Richard Prisco, Mel Chin met with the students in person and through Zoom for critiques.

The exhibition includes Mel Chin’s full-size prototype of his DRIFT: Longboard Lounge and scale models of the students’ final designs accompanied with storyboards.

Students:

• Austin Glasser

• Seth Hodges

• Jon Kannapell

• Noah Martin

• Alex Ohren

• Emma Reamer

• Andrew Sowards

• Vic Stocker

• Asher Vasa

Thank you to Our House Designs for upholstering Mel Chin’s prototype in SEAQUAL Certified Fabric provided by Inside Out Performance Fabrics. Special thanks also to Professor Richard Prisco, Mel Chin, Landon Lane III, Charlie Zagaroli and Steve Brooks.

Mel Chin’s collaboration with ASU students is featured in this video.