Study: Missing seat

Ominous by its absence the missing seat suggests some sort of catastrophic intervention, a result of intent or design. As a design fault of course eventually the structural weak plastic will give way under routine subjegation to the rigours of the average British physique a result of the environment these objects are destined for.

The chair has come to symbolise the individual. The use of a chair as a weapon of the discontented is poingant not just barbaric.

As an object of destructive intent the chair has its place in the volatile history throughout British history from props in hangings to missiles in the stadiums across the country (to be replicated abroad, who can forget scenes of British hooligans lobbings chairs at startled and bemused hosts in numerous competitions)

Study: Street chair Bath

Study: Collapsable

Study: Housebound

Study: Chair face

Study: Collapsed chair

Study: Wheelchair

Study: Scene Extra

locked up
















behind a facade













behind bars

The Tranquility of Solitude

"The tranquility of solitude" this line for me sums up the connection between the chaotic complexity of life and the peace one can find there. The lines is from the Jam song Thats Entertainment - "two lovers kissing amongst the scream of midnight". Or Damien Hirst's Tranquility of Solitude, a homage to Francis Bacon and his studies of his lover George Dyer.

The Jam song talks about struggling as an artist in the entertainment industry and the stark contrasts between perceptions of successs and the reality of attaining this. I think the Francis Bacon studies of his lover and the homage by Hirst talk of the same tensions between ideal and reality, between beauty and grotesque. For me one continously interesting element is the circus of grotesque that hides in the shadows of "ideal" and I have persevered to explore this through the beautiful freaks prototypes (ongoing).

The deformed and grotesque, the freedoms and benefits that imperfection guaruntees has been an increasingly penetrative motif for the past 20 years gradually creeping into contemporary representation of humans and the human condition. Inverted Darwinian principles applied to products and social Darwinism heralded as entertainment. This includes freaky celebs that congregate with the grotesque under the auspicious banner of "reality".

The celebration of the unnervingly different. This is an interesting element I see in Nina Saunders work,

andy lock photography came my way by chance, the V&A's secret little photography grotto, containing not just Richard Leoroyd's amazing studies but Andy Locks "Orchard Park"

a perfect study of a condemned housing estate (here is another review and one of his best images

Prototype: Fat leg

Added to previous protoype entry

put arc wood from fold up chair as back, loop paper from arm to arm and behind either side of the wooden arc and fix sprung seat with red illustrations on black. Something about cycles that makes you lie down as you read it. Need a fat legged recliner really! the text could go right out of site forcing the user to get out of the seat and the end should reflect that change of position / stand point / view...

In Damien Hirsts work he deals with life/death the life cycle but the work I was interested in was inspired by and compared to Francis Bacon "Hirst has openly acknowledged his debt to Bacon, absorbing the painter's visceral images and obsessions early on and giving them concrete existence in sculptural form" The Tranquility of Solitude (For George Dyer) triptych (detail)

Study: Louise Borgeois

Louise Borgeos, Tate modern Unilever Series...

Prototype: Mirror chair

Prototype: Slinky leg

not a prayer - guantanemo

use high strength magnets in guantanemo prayer stools to fit tetris bits together...

There is nothing more human than to misappropriate oneness so that it confines the freedom of solitude to the prison of the mind.

Graphics: Original Blog Banners

Study: Shadow of a chair in a window display

Singular chair in a window display close to London bridge

Study: Chair in alley

Amazing colours in the surrounding
environment

Study: Panoptigon seats

earlier studies
and original sketch model


























I love the composition of the photo above, the way the back drop walls dont meet up on the same lines of perspective which sends your eye out when you are focusing on the broken seat. And the matching blue light on the wall making the set piece take on more of a furniture catalogue feel.

When prophecy fails

Prophecies and predictions require blindspots. Absolutism can exist but maybe with varying doses of cognitive dissonance. Hence we have guilt laden monetheistic religions and theoretical sciences with incomplete and inconsistant "standard models" or core beliefs.

In the case of cults (When Prophecy Fails) the desperation of those left to fend for themselves after "greatness" is not delivered.

Divine providence does not deliver anything to the weak and downtrodden except the meagre comfort of "things being better after you've died". Blinkered approaches to the bigger picture, made up answers which beg the question why hasn't evolution totally dispensed of religion already? what evolutionary purpose does faith/belief serve? what do christian scientists say? how is cognitive dissonance smoothed out, how do we profess that which we don't know to be true...except through conviction...the pillar of faith...

Study: Smoking seat

trace of a door behind
earlier studies and here and here

Study: Coutyard corner chair

Study: Veranda Suntrap

This image is crammed full of information about its owner, how the chair might be used and when the other two are used.

Study: the fine line between life and death

dangermen stuntpeople

Prototype: Fat leg chairs

One of the fat legged chairs broke around the backrest so this will lead to a new stage of development where at each stage the overweighted mend will make the weak parts give elsewhere.

Study: Heron

Studies to go with the heron stool

Study: Detail/Pattern and Form

The original study was of this broken chair on the bags, the form like a massive hemorrhaging chair that would be possible to recreate as a massive bean bag for alot of people with one "normal" seat included. The detail of a delicate dusting of small flowers adds to the aged effect in the close up macro shots. The

Study: Man Alone At Heron Statue

Another study for the heron stool
Also other studies

Study: Man Alone on Bench

Study: Man sat against a tree surrounded by empty chairs

Study: Park and alley chairs

Study: Chair stuck in gap

Study: Single seats bench style

Single seats similar to Barcelona
Also singular