THE COLLECTION
Matthias Megyeri (German, born 1973)
Heart to Heart chain, from the Sweet Dreams Security series
Prototype
- Date:
- 2004
- Medium:
- Iron
- Dimensions:
- each link 2 1/2 x 2" (7 x 5 cm)
- Credit Line:
- SAFE Exhibition Fund
- MoMA Number:
- 147.2006
- Copyright:
- Photo by Mathias Megyeri
SAFE: Design Takes On Risk
, October 16, 2005–January 2, 2006Curator, Paola Antonelli: Matthias Megyeri used to be a student at the Royal College of Arts in London, when he started this particular exploration into safety objects. He noticed how all over town safety items of all kinds, from fences to glass shards, were ubiquitous, and he started thinking about how to make this landscape, that was so riddled with emblems of security and conversely of fear, more pleasant to the owner and to the public.
You might want to ask, who needs cute barbed wire with little butterflies, and who needs a chain that is made of hearts instead of rings, and who needs a lock that is a teddy bear as opposed to a normal lock? Nobody and everybody. You know, security and its effigies are ubiquitous. It just depends on how we want to deal with them. Do we want to smile at them, or do we want to just frown and be reminded about our vulnerability?
Rough Cut: Design Takes a Sharp Edge
November 26, 2008–October 12, 2009
The Sweet Dreams Security Series of safety products is Megyeri’s comment on the growing demand for personal security and the exaggerated cuteness that has become a big part of contemporary culture. Megyeri’s work as a student at the Royal College of Art in London largely focused on security in domestic environments, taking a critical and ironic look at contradictory attitudes. A response to an assignment to design a placebo product for a client with a psychological illness or phobia, the Sweet Dreams Security Series focuses on the heightened fears associated with home security. The resulting products merge the need for protection with a desire for beauty, redefining padlocks, chains, fences, and razor wire as lovable objects. Megyeri’s photographs of London, which juxtapose the need for protection and the desire for beauty in the urban landscape, were the inspiration for this project.
If you are interested in reproducing images from The Museum of Modern Art web site, please visit the Image Permissions page (www.moma.org/permissions). For additional information about using content from MoMA.org, please visit About this Site (www.moma.org/site).
© Copyright 2011 The Museum of Modern Art