What Do Chairs And Art Mean To Me

This blog is for people who like chairs and like art.

I like art and I did a three-year course in upholstery because I like chairs. I've noticed that chairs have inspired artists through the ages. If chairs can become art, can chair-makers become artists?

This blog documents my journey through the spaghetti junction that is the interface between art and chairs. Where will it take me? To a gallery, the workshop, my computer, the madhouse? I welcome your company. And comments.

Thursday, 7 October 2010

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.
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8 comments:

  1. Laura 7 October 2010 at 08:30

    Can we have more chair art homages?!

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  2. Circeplum7 October 2010 at 08:44

    But your homage chairs aren't abandoned. Doesn't that change the whole subtext and dynamic?

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  3. Elaine Ronson7 October 2010 at 09:10

    Yes.

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  4. Elaine Ronson7 October 2010 at 09:11

    It's a 'homage', not a reproduction Brian Sewell!

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  5. Elaine Ronson7 October 2010 at 09:14

    Anyway, I can't afford to abandon chairs. Doris Salcedo is an internationally famous artist. She can buy job lots of chairs and just leave them strewn around the streets if she wants. Anyway, some of my chairs are original Herman Miller Eames chairs. I can't abandon them, that would be a real crime!

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  6. Elaine Ronson7 October 2010 at 09:17

    Obviously I meant, 'not a reproduction, Brian Sewell'. I haven't made a reproduction Brian Sewell yet, but it's a thought....

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  7. Ann25 August 2012 at 04:02

    More gay abandon than loss, Elaine's homage nevertheless captures Salcedo's pure aethestic of the line, form and beauty of chairs. I love it - pure joy and truly heartwarming.

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  8. Leleka Rodrigues21 October 2014 at 12:24

    Um monumento ao desperdício! Inúmeros lares ou instituições necessitam de assentos e tantos desperdiçados nesta "arte". Não, eu não consigo enxergar nada artístico nisso! Desculpe, sinceramente...

    ReplyDelete

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