Massimiliano Malagò, an architectural designer based in New York City, has unveiled Pax New Yorkea, a throne-like acrylic chair engraved with motifs and writings. This intricate piece functions as what he calls “an essay in the form of an object,” offering a layered meditation on urban life, labour, love, and leisure in the city.
After facing visa issues that briefly removed him from the US, Malagò’s return to New York triggered an introspective journey. It prompted the development of this chair, shaped from acrylic panels etched with laser-cut text and then washed in gold paint. “Completely Italian” but raised in London, Malagò channels both personal displacement and cultural immersion into his design narrative.
The piece comprises three visible panels, each reflecting different aspects of the New York experience. One panel critiques the city’s relentless work culture, another examines relationships, while the third explores how people claim leisure amid chaos.
Carved Commentary on Urban Conditions
Each section of the chair invites contemplation. According to Malagò, New York’s intense working culture often ties “binding pride to endless output,” leaving little room for rest. Consequently, the chair’s tall, enclosing panels aim to provide a sense of shelter—offering symbolic protection from the very themes it explores.
Text densely covers the surfaces, acting both as messaging and material. This “sea of information” mimics digital information overload, a reality of modern life in the city. Rather than overwhelm, however, it transforms into a texture that seduces the eye, drawing viewers in to discover hidden layers of meaning.
Malagò explained, “By encapsulating both critique and satire, Pax New Yorkea presents a portrait of New York – seat of power, and vector of emancipation, debauchery, exhilaration and sorrows at once – that reflects the hardened resilience required to live, love, and survive in the city today.”
Adding to the narrative, visual symbols such as city flowers, tarot spreads, and engraved emblems adorn the chair, blending the mystical with the metropolitan. These elements enhance the artwork’s layered storytelling and emotional depth.
A Monument to Mundane Hardship
Though lavish in appearance, the chair’s purpose is grounded in emotional truth. A removable fourth panel can seal the sitter inside, symbolising closure and the end of a chapter in the artist’s life. It also amplifies the sense of reflection the piece aims to evoke.
Malagò said, “For me, this was making an object that is incredibly luxurious, incredibly grand, but it’s actually talking about something quite common and sometimes quite sad, because the hardships that people go through to stay in the city are just difficult.”
Now teaching at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Malagò runs the design practice HHMM alongside set designer Helene Helleu. His work, like Pax New Yorkea, challenges viewers to consider how art and design can mirror both personal journeys and urban realities.