Unhappy Hipsters: The Dark Side of Designer Interiors
“Ever the realist, he built his table for one” (Dwell, February 2010)
We are drawn to the clean, relaxed-looking simplicity of architectural spaces and interior designs as photographed in contemporary design magazines – but what would life really be like living in one of these pictures? Happy, exciting, or highly depressing?
“Eames, Aalto her most significant relationships were with dead designers.”
One anonymous blogger has sought to illuminate these scenes (or perhaps darken them). The resulting photo-documentation project shows the secret lives and hidden truths of postmodern hipsters living in modern spaces.
“He tried to focus on the novel, and not how much his bedroom reminded him of a plywood coffin.”
Unhappy Hipsters captions images from designer magazines in an attempt to capture the essence of the framed scenes and staged scenarios being depicted. There is dark yet still laugh-out-loud humor built into his brief statements about the situations.
“In search of a less bleak playground, the toddler pedaled faster.”
Really, what does it say about us if we truly strip down our spaces and try to make them into controlled, museum-like rooms with highly selective works of art? Does that leave us any room for real self-expression, let alone play?
“He sipped his tepid coffee and pondered how to tell her that, in fact, the pants made the sack dress even less appealing.”
How quickly a designer catalog devolves when one catalogs the thoughts that might be going through the minds of the models in each image.
“Everyone always leaves.”
A few more greats:
“Explaining the creepy neighbor had become a rite of passage.”
“Joey wasn’t the only one exhausted by the slumpy leather sofa.”
“Nobody had the heart to tell her that organizing books by color was so 2004.”
“Looking back, it was clear that the judgy plants had crushed their intimacy.”
