103: TEJO REMY, You Can't Lay Down Your Memories < Design, 27 February 2025 < Auctions

Design

27 February 2025

Design

103

Tejo Remy
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You Can't Lay Down Your Memories

Droog
The Netherlands, 1991
found drawers, maple, jute, aluminum 54 h × 57 w × 22 d in (137 × 145 × 56 cm)

estimate: $10,000–15,000

result: $12,065

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Work is comprised of 20 cases, each with a found drawer, all bound together with a commercial cinch strap. Measurements are approximate and vary with installation. Signed to reverse of one box 'Tejo Remy'. Stamped number and manufacturer's mark to interior of each box ‘No 071 Droog Design'. This work is number 71 from the edition of 200.
provenance: Acquired directly from Droog by the present owner
literature: Simply Droog: 10 + 3 Years of Creating Innovation and Discussion, Bakker and Ramakers, pg. 27 Objects of Design from the Museum of Modern Art, Antonelli, pg. 276 A Human Touch, Droog Design exhibition catalog, ppg. 144-145 Design for Living: Furniture and Lighting 1950-2000, Hanks and Hoy, ppg. 210-211

This work will ship from Chicago, Illinois.

Memory & Method

Tejo Remy’s Iconic Drawers

Pulling together themes of memory and over-consumption, Tejo Remy’s critically acclaimed designs are boldly conceptual objects that collide and transform past and present. Remy allegedly named his iconic You Can't Lay Down Your Memories for a line in the 1985 song “Knockin’ On Joe” by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds. Of the design, Ingeborg de Roode notes for the Vitra Design Museum, “Remy attaches enormous significance to the storage of personal possessions. For him, the chest is a metaphor for the (sometimes chaotic) workings of memory. Naturally, it is easiest to remember which drawer an item is in if the drawers are all different. This is also a key aspect of the design.” Once Droog Design was founded in 1993, this design was offered as part of its collection.

Watch Tejo Remy discuss You Can’t Lay Down Your Memory