Canopé

Art Deco armchairs with a custom cushion filler, created through a process interrogating boundaries in ethics srrounding human tissue from living donors.

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Canape is a pair of art deco arm chairs re-upholstered and filled with wax like substance made from rendered fat. This is a soft wax-llike substance that, with the heat of the body, softens up and moulds to the contours of the body. The chairs are designed as gallery seating to be used, not just looked at. Adult stem cells can be extracted from fat and can be turned into bone and heart cells. Scientists are currently investigating using these cells, for example in the formation of artificial heart valves. Fat, or adipose tissue, is readily available and, unlike bone marrow, can be extracted in large quantities painlessly. It is thought, therefore, that in the future this may provide a vlaueable source of stem cells for tissue engineering.