Style Imitating Art | Hey Chair, Be a Bookshelf! by Maarten Baas
About Style Imitating Art
Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.
You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!
This Week’s Presenter
Marsha chose this week’s inspiration art. She has been training as a docent at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and she had to do a presentation on this piece for her class. She had the nerve-wracking honor of being the first in her class to give a presentation but she said all went well! I am certain that Marsha’s post will be chock of full of fascinating information about this piece so be sure to visit her.
The Artwork
Hey Chair, Be a Bookshelf! by Maarten Baas
About the Artist: Maarten Baas
Maarten Baas is a Dutch furniture designer who is most widely known for his Real Time clock series which is an art installation where people manually create and subsequently erase the hands on a clock every minute using CGI technology for portions of the time depiction.
Baas was born on February 19, 1978, and graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2002. He currently resides in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and recently installed a neon lighting artwork called Intellectual heritage above the entrance to the main public library at the Neude.
With a focus on bridging the boundaries between design and art, Baas’s portfolio embodies conceptual art, craftsmanship, installation, public space, and performance. His unique position in combining multiple disciplines into one art form has led to him being considered one of the most influential artist-designers of the 21st century.
Design Basel/ Miami named Baas ‘Designer of the Year’ in 2009; two of his works were included in the New York Times 2012 list of ‘Top 25 Design Classics of the Future’; and in 2016 his Real Time Sweepers clock won the Artprize. His works are included in permanent museum collections around the world as well as the private collections of a few celebrities.
About the Art: Hey Chair, Be a Bookshelf!
Hey Chair, Be a Bookshelf! is a 2005 furniture design by Maarten Baas. The sculpture is an assemblage of old furniture and musical instruments with a polyurethane coating. It measures 68.5 x 39 x 25 in. (174 x 99 x 63.5 cm). The Indianapolis Museum of Art purchased this piece from New York’s Moss Gallery of Art and Design in 2009.
Much of Baas’s work relates to his childhood as he aims to “balance skilled technicality with the purity of child’s spontaneity.” I think this bookcase and all of his work absolutely achieve that goal. Look how cute it is with books on it!
As a person who lives to make old things into new things, this is my favorite SIA artwork that we have featured so far. Now I want to go build functional furniture sculptures from my old junk.
Resources/References:
About My Outfit
My immediate response to this bookcase as our style inspiration was, “This is going to be either really difficult or really easy. I’m hoping for easy.” And that hope manifested easy for me.
I just scored this beautiful black and white robe on the same thrifting adventure where I found pieces of my thrifty double denim outfit. The black border reminds me of the vertical and horizontal lines of the furniture used to make the bookshelf. The black floral print is a nod to the green plant that is placed on top of the bookshelf. I was going to wear a black column beneath the robe but all black is always so difficult to photograph so I went with a dark green tee shirt instead as another nod to the plant. I kept everything else black from my leggings to my cowgirl boots to my boater hat to my earrings and necklaces.
This outfit made me as happy as the funky bookcase did. A lady drove by while we taking photos and she yelled compliments out her window which added to the joy of this whole Style Imitating Art experience!
I hope you all enjoyed this round of Style Imitating Art. Be sure to check out how Marsha and Salazar have styled their outfits inspired by this funky bookcase. If you want to play along and create your own art inspired outfit, please submit your photos to Marsha (mlrbanks57@gmail.com) by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, and she will feature your outfit in her style gallery on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. Until then, happy styling!
Keeping it on the edge,
Shelbee
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
I am a midlife woman, wife, and stay-at-home mother of 2 boys and 2 cats. I have a passion for helping other women feel fabulous in the midst of this crazy, beautiful life.
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