For me, the concept of metamorphosis evokes the grotesque. Blame a literary background, but my mind immediately goes to Franz Kafka’s seminal story as well as David Cronenberg’s The Fly.

There’s also Morpheus from The Matrix, which is perhaps Millennial culture’s most potent emblem for a mentor who facilitates change.

I see elements of all of the above in MORPHO, the collaborative exhibition between Great Library Design Studio and Ethnicraft. Yes, this is actually about furniture—namely, a collection of seating, tables, and outdoor lounges—but it’s set up like an epic story, a potent myth about the influence of organic forms on man-made objects.

Returning to my sense of the grotesque, there’s always something a bit unsettling about even the most beautiful natural forms. With respect to MORPHO (and especially Volita), the elemental feature is the intricate decorative fan where the frame joins the back of the seat. Ethnicraft positions this as the generative origin: “a showstopping dining chair that appears to emerge from delicate dragonfly wings.”

The unfamiliar can always be frightening—hence, its close affiliation with the grotesque—but Volita transcends the strangeness to arrive at the sublime, a feeling of otherworldliness heightened by positioning these pieces in a wild landscape, a mise-en-scene of “Tomorrowland,” the famed music festival whose look was designed by architect Dieter Vander Velpen.

Positioned such that it looks part and parcel of the lush landscape, Volita complements this contrived wildness. It’s seemingly posed to metamorphose into something entirely other, likely something quite beautfiul, a dragon or a jaguar, definitely something less unsightly than Jeff Goldblum.

In many ways, the uncertainty is the point. Like other inspirations for the collection (including Art Nouveau and the architecture of Antonio Gaudí), Volita relies on the shock value of the other—because anything that changes the world is initially met with a shred of fear, a strain of skepticism, the unsettling familiarity of an environment forever in flux.

Companion pieces for Volita include the Aleta Barstool, Solis Outdoor Daybed, Vime Lounge Chair, and Zen Adjustable Lounger.

See MORPHO at Salone del Mobile through April 13, Hall 14.