I have recently begun a sculpture series
based on chairs. The chairs I am reconstructing are from the 1800’s. What I
have created is an out of place-ness for a common utilitarian object. By
stripping it of context and removing it from its innate function I am focusing
the viewer on the chairs’ exaggerated personality. At the same time I am creating
a potential for the viewer to explore their own memories.
If a chair is designed to allow a person to
sit then it seems logical that it becomes a kind of bookmark for a person
once they leave it empty or for a person that will return or even for the expected new person to come and sit on the chair.
So I guess it has created a simultaneous presence and absence. There is no
telling who will sit or has sat in the chair.
But by reconstructing the chair as a
sculpture I am crystallizing its past so that it can be contemplated as a
footnote to history, a narrative of a time lost or even a metaphor for emotions
that are spatially and/or temporally out of place.
Related articles
- Judith Miller on antique chairs (telegraph.co.uk)
- Studio Nucleo Presenze Part II Chair (curatedmag.com)
- The Complexities and Risks of Mixed Media (modernsculpture.blogspot.com)
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