— Pharrell Williams, sharing his thoughts on international conflict with Blast magazine.

Williams, or as Blast calls him, Icône des icônes de l’esprit Cool America, is in Paris this week to talk about his latest piece of furniture, the Tank Chair, which he originally unveiled in Nov 2009. The leather and Plexiglas chair is now showing by appointment only at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, with Williams describing the four distinct colours:

We did light pink, and baby blue for little boys, and black and white for yin & yang.

Baby blue for little boys. The same ones who end up going to war, which he neither supports, nor opposes. How is that even possible? ‘To each his own’ is the kinda thing you usually say about chocolate versus vanilla, or Kylie over Dannii. Not about one country fighting another. Way to sit on the fucking fence, Pharrell.

He somewhat redeems himself by explaining his thoughts behind the Tank Chair and how, rather than just analyse war, he wanted to think about the mentality of the young folk who choose to go and fight. So the idea was to consider the decision, not what the decision was actually about.

He chose tank tracks - which can only move forwards - for the chair base, to reflect that there’s no turning back once someone has agreed to go to battle. (Unlike the chaps in the picture above, of course, as they are merely staging a re-enactment).

Like the Tank Chair, Pharrell’s earlier foray into furniture design also featured at the Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in 2008.  The Perspective chair (above) was made from slick acrylic with seat covers cut from leather, velour or the delightfully sounding ‘veal skin’, and sales were limited to just four per colour.

With its male and tiptoed female feet for support, Perspective allowed Williams to explore the theme of love. He explained on the Billionaire Boys’ Club blog:

I had often wondered what it’s like to truly be in love, not lust for once. So I decided not to ask what it was like in someone else’s shoes or what it was like to sit in their seat…I decided to sketch out my own experiment; the perspective chair.

So love not lust. Choosing to go to war, rather than actually choosing war. Cool. Can he just go back to producing music, looking good and wearing ridiculous shoes now? I know Ikea lacks soul but all this halfhearted furniture philosiphising is doing my head in.

See the Tank Chair in all four shades at the gallery website.

Watch his interview with Blast below:

Tank Chair from Blast, tank photo from Rikdom, Spongebob pic from Merlijn, other Pharrell chairs from Ivanorama and BBC website.

Tina Fey speaking to Esquire (US), April 2010.