'Lady Kelly' by Anna Aagaard Jensen, Netherlands, 2018

The ‘Lady Kelly’ chair, designed by Anna Aagaard Jensen in 2018, challenges societal norms about gender, space, and power. Reserved exclusively for women, the chair compels its sitter to adopt a posture often associated with masculinity: leaning back confidently, legs wide apart, and unapologetically taking up space. This design pushes against societal constraints that dictate "appropriate" female behavior, highlighting how men tend to occupy space freely in public, while women are pressured to conform to narrower expectations. The chair emerges from Jensen’s graduate project, A Basic Instinct, which explores gendered attitudes and their reflection of societal inequality. The title references Sharon Stone’s iconic scene in the film Basic Instinct, where her unconventional posture disrupts traditional power dynamics.

In 2019, Jensen’s chairs were featured in Salone del Mobile, as part of an installation mimicking a formal meeting in the public square. This “meeting” inverted traditional power structures, dismantling the rigid, patriarchal conventions of formal gatherings. With only 17% of board seats in contemporary society occupied by women, Jensen's installation boldly confronts the slow progress toward equality, illustrating the fragility of outdated notions about women in positions of power. The meeting space consisted of five chairs, exclusively for women, symbolizing their central role. The uneven number of chairs represented a missing piece: the absent sixth seat embodied the gap in representation for women on corporate boards. The installation urged women to reclaim space in a metaphorical and physical sense, presenting an alternate vision where they confidently assert their presence, challenging conventional power dynamics and questioning gender discrimination. Only women were permitted to sit on the chairs, further amplifying the message of empowerment and reclamation.