Trees have so much to give to art and chairs

Ai Weiwei's genius 'Map Of China'.

Peter Cook grows his own chairs at home in Australia.

The Dutch design scene has since the 90s narrowed the gulf between art and design. This piece by Jurgen Bey is typical of the movement.

http://www.studiomakkinkbey.nl/

The incredibly prolific and talented Patricia Urquoia draws on organic shapes for inspiration. From top her Log Chair, Redondo and (bottom) frilly stools, which look like little log stumps. She's the place to go for something that doesn't look like everything else. Check out especially her designs for Moroso.

Snow + trees = chairs

Is this a Banksy?

Spotted in Soho last week, two boiler-suited workers apparently taking time out from their potentially high-risk labours to enjoy a playful break on a makeshift seesaw. Whether a seesaw counts as a chair or not I don't know, but this eerie installation on the corner of Berwick Street and Meard Street certainly had the enduring resonance of art. A Banksy? All the Banksy motifs are there: the gas masks, the poison symbols, the boiler suits ... For my money it's the real deal and Banksy at his best, in the streets, guerilla-style. Not on the walls of wealthy owners.

Post number 4: David Byrne

Talking Heads' David Byrne is a surprisingly keen enthusiast of chairs in art and writes very interestingly about it her: http://www.davidbyrne.com/art/chairs/index.php

Post Number 3: Doris Salcedo

Art can certainly be chairs, as many artists have shown.

Top of the list has to be Colombian artist Doris Salcedo who uses chairs a lot in her work. Her amazing installation (left) created in 2003 for the 8th Istanbul Biennale, imbues the humble wooden household chair with incredible symbolism. Salcedo wedged thousands of chairs into the space between two buildings. Taken separately each chair suggests an absent owner - similarly callously discarded? - taken overall, the installation evokes a sense of monumental loss.

Imagine the technical ingenuity involved in creating this effect of bringing the chairs exactly flush with the neighbouring walls!

You can see Doris Salcedo talking about this installation on:

www.pbs.org/art 21/artists/doris salcedo/

My homage to Doris Salcedo.

Post Number 2

Art

Art: Sirpa Pajunen-Moghissi

Art? Not even if the dogs hadn't  chewed one corner and I'd covered it in a Picasso canvas.