Shadow chair (first chair modification for 25 E 13th. ST), 2020
watercolor pencil on paper; sketchup rendering; ink on paper
The first chair design is very conceptual. I felt stuck and didn’t know how to modify the chair given to us. In class, we were working on sciagraphy - the study of light and shadow - and how it is represented in drawings. It made me think of the relationship between an object - in this case the chair - and its corresponding shadows on the ground, and how these interacted with the distinct shadows cast by the spherical windows. I thought the negative space that separated ground from object was very intriguing. It begged to be filled, to be grasped, somehow. That’s when I got the idea to materialize shadows, to make physical the light that shown on the chair and created these intricate shadows. So, I simply connected point A from the chair to point B on the floor. Slowly, I built up the shadows relying on triangular shapes to ensure they would fit perfectly into each other. I first created the design in sketchup, then printed it and drew it with watercolor and pen. I added color to infuse it with some life, and echo the connection to light. The first sketch looks as if the rays of the sun were materialized, frozen, cut, and glued to the floor.
Bubble chair (second chair modification for 25 E 13th. ST.), 2020
pencil, watercolor pencil, ink on paper; sketchup rendering; ink, sugar pearls, caramel on paper
The second chair design came out of several sketches I made trying to tie the sugar pearl concept I used in my window treatment with an actual chair, which we had to modify. I used the same spheres I used for the window and fused them to the chair to establish a connection between the two and also hopefully begin a narrative. The idea was that, because of sugar’s inherent fragility, the windows would not last, and would eventually melt due to heat. The melted sugar would travel down the walls, onto the floor, bringing the solid sugar pearls along with it. These pearls would then meet this skeleton of a chair - missing a backrest and seat - and become attached to it, figuratively and literally.