William F***ing Morris

Exactly 225 grams of “palo santo, citrus rind, cedar, clay, scorched earth, and ancient rituals” was delivered to me for the holidays. A candle called “Totem”; its elements listed on the label by one of those brands that reproduce tastes for the faintly mystic on Instagram. Compared to all social mediums, it is a super-app for “aesthetic” and recently, stole the spliced-video format of Tiktok, well suited to performing artsy labor in endless loops: Hypebeasts tufting rugs, cool girls making candles with intentions, and furniture stores posting inspiration photos of the Eames lounge they replicated. Elsewhere on the Internet: the 3 million strong Facebook group HOME BUDDIES™️ producing house tour videos that a “slapsoil” class makes parodies of. All belong to the gangbusters home decor sector; home decor being a main category in which to perform class.

On the supply side, Ikea has opened. Wilcon is expanding. All Home (PSE ticker: HOME), which isn’t really a household name, reported making 12 billion pesos in 2020.

A visit to their large free-standing store on C5 yielded much animal hides, a steal at ~₱1000, but running them through fingers revealed they were artificial. Manny Villar is the Chairman of its Board of Directors. Speaking of boards, the Board of Investments published a Philippine Furniture Industry Roadmap up to 2030 that purports we are the Milan of Asia, and that furniture making (which they funnily call “homestyle” industry) is the most sustainable biz in the Philippines. They argue that there is a supply of skilled labor (a lot of designers, carvers and weavers) and raw materials (the presentation opens with a picture of a bamboo forest, gulp).

At various costs, inhabiting and “taking space” are concerns of the millennial age, especially those that live rent-free in their parents’ homes. Whether it’s a dance or a piece of cloth that expands to fit their body, every consumer item they buy can mark their territory, within a territory.

Veronica Lazo did something like this when she tufted a 7 x 4-foot rug of a cat on fire (reference to a scam where a burning feline is let loose in informal settlements so they can be razed for a private developer that has designs on the property). This went on for 4 weeks in the mornings, from the end of November to the end of December; then she played tennis in the afternoons.

I imagine her in workout gear through this practice, as I met her in a residency where she wore a lot of great bodysuits to take a yoga class remotely. I want to say that she worked for a long time as an industrial designer, both teaching the subject at the state university and designing for furniture brands. But having heard her thoughts (overleaf) on the contradiction between declaring the self in space versus the commodification of living, I think it’s more like what Georgia O’Keeffe — whose own dwellings are celebrated — said. She shouldn’t be understood based on where she’s lived but what she’s done with where she’s been.

Text by Anna Canlas