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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Jonathan Jones

Objects of Desire review – surreal lobster phones and a seaside sleazorama

Dreamy … Leonora Carrington, The Old Maids, 1947. © Estate of Leonora Carrington / ARS, NY and DACS, London 2022
Dreamy … Leonora Carrington, The Old Maids, 1947. Photograph: James Austin/Estate of Leonora Carrington / ARS, NY and DACS, London 2022

The Design Museum may need to keep an eye out for unsuitable acts on all the erotic furniture in its often delirious exhibition of perverse design. Perhaps they should put up a sign: “No sex on the sofas, please!”

Objects of Desire explores the influence of the surrealist movement on modern interiors and fashion. It is a celebration of design gone awry: instead of rational functionality, the creations here infiltrate the irrational into the practical, attacking reality in the name of dreams. A standard lamp in the form of a life-size horse, a comfy chair made of soft toys, and above all those lubricious, curvy, velvet and leather sofas, make this exhibition a delightful orgy of bad taste.

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