This astonishing chair, a mashup of plastic and stone, is from Sidewalk Salon, Manar Moursi and David Puig’s book about chairs they encountered while walking around Cairo, Egypt. It reminds me of the chairs I see around Harlem, cobbled together by people who who sit under the cherry tree on the corner, with whatever they have or find. They like to hang out together comfortably, so they improvise chairs, sometimes stashing them in trees for the night.

And those chairs, like Moursi’s iconic one,  always remind me of a fragment of Neruda’s Ode to a Chair:

I only request one thing
for the stranger,
for the desperate
explorer,
a chair in the tree of chairs,
a throne,
disheveled and plush,
the velvet of a deep easy chair,
eaten away by creepers.
Yes,
a chair, 
loving the universe, 
for the walkabout man, 
the sure 
foundation, 
the supreme 
dignity 
of rest! 

…

..
Peace 
begins 
in 
a 
single 
chair.

 

Take a look here for more astonishment in the realm of makeshift by Moursi and Puig.