With inventiveness and wit, designer Liam Lee (Born 1993, New York, New York; active Brooklyn, New York) and artist Tommy Mishima (Born 1980, Lima, Peru; active Bronx, New York) critically examine Andrew Carnegie’s rise to power, networks of access, and philanthropic strategies. Carnegie built his fortune in the steel industry, becoming one of the richest men in the world and a leading philanthropist in the US.
Liam Lee and Tommy Mishima, Installation of “Game Room” in Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution
He profoundly influenced the fields of science, education, finance, and international relations through monetary support via his four major giving arms: Carnegie Institution of Washington, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Placed in Carnegie’s original home office, where he made his charitable decisions, Mishima’s drawings dive into the philanthropist’s formidable legacy by mapping the far-reaching ways his money is still at play today. In the center of the room is Mishima’s board game Philanthropy. Derived from Monopoly, the objective is to become the most powerful agent through tactical grant making, fundraising, and selling access to institutional research. In tandem, Lee created a series of furniture pieces inspired by Carnegie’s original office design. Each piece, carefully crafted with hand-dyed needle-felted wool, references the mycelium networks that facilitate the distribution of nutrients to plants and power the growth of the forest—an apt metaphor for the systems of power that Carnegie cultivated throughout his life.