Prune: How a Pierre Paulin Grail Ended up in A$AP Ferg’s Latest Music Video

Tyler Watamanuk on the increasing cool of Pierre Paulin.

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Set designer Matt Pecina was inside a historic brownstone in Harlem, working with a small crew to finalize the interior staging for the day’s shoot, when a box truck pulled up outside. Out stepped the rapper and artist A$AP Ferg. The shoot was to coincide with Ferg’s first solo show as a visual  artist. “It was kind of his own independent photo and video shoot for his paintings, tied to his album. But really, it was more about presenting himself as an artist,” Pecina told Prune. And inside the box truck? It was full of all his own high-end furniture, lighting, paintings, and props. “He basically put his entire apartment in a box truck and brought it to set.”

Ferg’s personal pieces are scattered throughout the “Alive” music video: from a glossy, lacquered polyester side table from Dutch company Polspotten in a vibrant coral red to a towering postmodern floor lamp. He also appears in a bathrobe from the ultra-colorful homeware brand Dusen Dusen at the beginning of the video. When Ferg gave a brief house tour to Architectural Digest in 2020, his sparsely furnished home featured an Alpha Egg Chair and a massive Tom Dixon lamp. (Not to mention Aesop’s brass oil burner and luxury resin homewares from Dinosaur Designs.) All of this is to say that Ferg has an eye for design, so Pecina knew when he got the gig that he had to come correct.

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“I wanted to use a chair that was recognizable, had a cool factor, and was also sophisticated,” explained Pecina. “Ever since Frank Ocean posted that photo of himself on the giant [Dune] sofa, Pierre Paulin has had a place in the culture—it just felt right.” Ocean, along with Kanye West, helped spark a younger generation’s love affair with Paulin, the famed French modernist who passed away in 2009 at the age of 81. In recent years, the Dune sofa has become a coveted design object within a subset of men who also revere brands like Supreme and Chrome Hearts. I wrote about the Dune sofa for ArtNews in 2021, and its reputation has only grown since.

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