Minor Fetish

A gaggle of sprezzy and slightly perplexed people gathered outside a Mercer Street storefront one Friday night in mid-May. At least some of the confusion had to do with the fact that the premises had been freshly vacated by Contact Sports, whose products alleged to boost their user’s “sexual wellness.” Though doomed as a sex shop (“Cool store. Overpriced everything. Probably will close down by winter,” wrote one overly optimistic Google reviewer), the wood-paneled space with a made-for-Instagram look could easily double as a design showroom—as in fact happened during New York Design Week. JONALDDUDD, the impertinently named pop-up that orbits the dreary industry fair, lent its imprimatur to a small exhibit of outré weavings, chairs, and objets d’art. In this context, Scott Newlin’s stackable ceramics, perched on a dais in the center of the room, came across as bland; looming overhead was Chandelier I, designer Jed Heuer’s chaotic take on, well, you know. Inside the crowded back room were any number of unidentifiable, unusable, and, alas, anerotic objects, from a cuph…