MEMPHIS, TN.- Metamorphic furniture, which changes form to suit one’s needs—whether shifting in from a chair into prie-dieu or from a dressing table into a chaise percée complete with chamber pot—is among the most fascinating types of decorative arts. Instead of Zuber wallpaper, these “transformers,” part of Decorative Arts Trust: A 35th Anniversary Exhibition, are set against artist Michael Roy’s expansive Buggin and Shruggin: A Glitched History of Gaming Culture, which was created as an ancillary space to the Brooks’ summer 2015 exhibition The Art of Video Games. The mural’s bold forms, vivid colors, and mind-bending combinations of people, machine parts, gears, animals, and architectural elements are the perfect foil for the traditional, though similarly hybrid and just as bewildering pieces of furniture.

Also included in the “transformers” gallery are two mid-19th century tilt-top stands—one of papier-maché and the other of Tennessee cherry—that can be used as either tables or as fire-screens. Standing adjacent is an English rosewood folding stand, circa 1830-1835, which expands into an expansive horizontal surface for oversized books, but which can also be used half-folded, allowing someone to flip through prints like vinyl records in a bin.

Since its founding as a support group to the Brooks in 1980, Decorative Arts Trust has acquired ever-more spectacular works for the museum’s permanent collection—from Medieval to Modern, from furniture to faïence. Featuring all of these gifts in glorious profusion, the exhibition features recent acquisitions such as a rare French Renaissance platter from the workshop of Bernard Palissy and a pair of fine New York Federal chairs, as well as old favorites such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s starkly beautiful Prairie-style chair and Tiffany & Company’s pair of elaborately decorated sterling ewers.

Occupying multiple galleries on two levels of the museum, Decorative Arts Trust: A 35th Anniversary Exhibition reveals the commitment of DAT to strengthen key areas of the Brooks’ collection. Its acquisitions of Southern objects boasts not only regional ceramics and quilts, but also exceptional examples of Tennessee and Kentucky sugar furniture. Likewise, DAT has richly expanded the museum’s holdings of fine silver to include works ranging from a pitcher marked by Memphis silversmith F.H. Clark to an art nouveau inkstand by Gorham & Company. Comprising over 100 splendid objects, the exhibition celebrates DAT’s enormous success in not only directly acquiring objects, but by encouraging private donations from groups and individuals. Decorative Arts Trust: A 35th Anniversary Exhibition is on view through January 10, 2016.