Seating Arrangements

The chairs are all the same, but in a sense, they are not. Afterall, I picked the same style chairs, but their colors differ.

I painted the chairs-- they were found objects; unwanted, unnoticed, treasure only for a dumpster diving artist hunting for ready-mades to incorporate into his or her piece. When I found the chairs, the old paint was chipping off, the wood was exposed, bared, and splitting; all in all, they were unwanted pieces of out-grown furniture. I fixed them up and painted them. Just for some added, random chance in the piece, the colors I picked were the first three cans of paint I found in my garage. And, it just so happened that they were black, white and yellow.

The paint I used was simple house paint that anyone could pick up from a local hardware store. But, as is the nature of house paint, it was not as glossy as I would have liked, so I lacquered the chairs with a thick coat of gloss topcoat for that extra little "oomph." I glossed these chairs to make them look more appealing, more fresh and clean, and most of all, hopefully more welcoming to a sitter.

The chairs lacked the little felt pads that would have eliminated squeaking when the legs scraped across the floor. I left them that way. I felt exhilarated by the audible sensation that the chairs created when I shifted them around.

The seats of the chairs were flat, there were no grooves carved into the seat to secure a resting person's buttocks and keep them from sliding on the slick, painted wood. There were no arms on the chairs when I found them, and I intended to keep them that way. They felt like utilitarian, dining room chairs, and again, I wished to preserve the overall appearance of the chair, with the exception of cleaning them up.

I placed the white chair deliberately under a spotlight. I wanted to present the piece of furniture as an art piece--like a sculpture in a museum. There was a white light on it, because I did not want to taint the purity of white, the true lack of color that white is.

The yellow chair was vibrant, sunny and bright. I wanted to emphasize the lively color by placing it outside in the sun, where the bright, natural light made it really "pop", like fresh flowers in a pot.

With one chair in the main exhibition room, and a second outside, I wanted to place the third chair somewhere that people frequented; perhaps in a smaller, darker room with no access to natural light...  And, I thought: the bathroom is perfect! In my mind, the lack of natural, white light was a perfect compliment to the black of the chair. In the end, the chairs were situated in places where they would be seen, places where they could interact with the audience and perhaps serve a purpose as a piece of furniture to sit on.

I am for an art that interacts and leaves the audience reminiscing about their experience. If I had another opportunity to do a similar piece, I would...