Uncanny Valley opens in New York
THE Haas Brothers“Uncanny valley in Museum of Arts and Design in New York brings together eighty-five works that present objects as active presences within one dreamyspeculative reality.
Installed opposite sculpturefurniture, ceramicspainting, and digital work, the exhibition moves without hierarchy. A beaded plant, a low table and a creature covered in fur occupy the same space, each following its own internal logic. The performance reads as a continuous environment where the distinctions between art and design give way to a common condition of movement and interaction.
At all scales, from hand vases to towering figures, the works create a backdrop where objects hold their own places while remaining in a fixed relationship. This flattened field is reminiscent of Object-Oriented Ontology, a philosophical framework that treats all objects as equally present, each bearing its own inner reality.
Uncanny Valley, Haas Brothers, exhibition view. image © designboom
when function gives way to behavior
Several of the Haas Brothers’ works start from familiar typologies and shift them through minor adaptations. A table takes a gesture that suggests movement. A seat gains weight and posture through its surface and posture. These changes change the way the object is treated, shifting attention away from use and toward presence.
THE design duo Describe this shift as a move toward empathy, where an object gains intensity once it outgrows its expected role. The effect is immediate: objects hold attention through posture and proportion, not just purpose.
Uncanny Valley, Haas Brothers, exhibition view. image © designboom
systems that create form
The process drives the report forward. Accretion works build surfaces through repeated applications that echo patterns found in coral, fungi and mineral growth. The paintings follow a similar logic, with layers added through controlled sequences built up into dense, tactile fields. Beaded plants extend this approach through mathematical structures, where stitch patterns and proportional systems guide the final form. Algorithmic landscapes are drawn from early digital graphics, producing environments that are developed through code.
In these works, form emerges through rule-based processes that continue to operate as objects take shape. Growth, repetition and variation remain visible, giving each piece a sense of duration. The exhibition builds a world where construction continues, where systems continue to operate within the finished work.
Uncanny Valley, Haas Brothers, exhibition view. image © designboom
the unusual as a spatial condition
The title indicates a perceptual threshold. Many objects straddle recognition and uncertainty, drawing on familiar references while maintaining distance. Fur, bronze, glass and ceramic surfaces suggest bodies, plants or tools, but resist firm identification. The proportions change slightly. Symmetry is broken along an axis. The details pile up beyond expectations.
This tension produces a sustained attention. The viewer registers something familiar and then stops at the point where that recognition begins to slip. The works hold this position without resolving it, allowing perception to move across their surfaces and form in a continuous loop.
Uncanny Valley, Haas Brothers, exhibition view. image © designboom
objects in relation
Taken together, the works create a network of correspondence that spans the entire gallery. Repetition occurs in different materials and scales. A clustered ceramic surface finds an echo in a painted field. A beaded structure is aligned with a digital pattern. These connections move through the exposition, connecting pieces through rhythm and variation.
The installation supports this read. Distance allows each object to maintain its presence while still participating in a larger system. Movement through the galleries becomes a process of tracing these relationships, where attention shifts through shared structures and gestures. The exhibition functions as a field in motion, where no object freezes the experience.
Uncanny Valley, Haas Brothers, exhibition view. image © designboom
