The other day in my critique I said I thought the chairs were having a conversation. I received a lot of blank stares from my peers. Chairs having a conversation? I should have explained myself and the whole concept, but it was one of those days.
So what is it about chairs?
Structurally, I approach them like architecture. They exist in a defined space on a defined plane. I push and pull where the chairs sit on the picture plane and sometimes they exist on the page in ways they cannot exist in reality.
Chairs are defined by their functionality. But this functionality is only defined by the presence of people. Empty chairs imply the absence of people. I began to think about the presence/absence relationship. And the chairs become personified. The chairs become surrogates for people who are not there-- a guest, a visitor, a friend, a lover, an enemy. What is not there is still felt by what is, and so the chairs remain.
Conversations
gouache, ink and hand-stitching on ephemera
approx. 7 x 10"
copyright Kate Castelli 2008
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