2007
The long march III
“We see a kind of section from a massive and all but endless row of swaying and wobbling chairs. The reference to the founder of the Chinese Communist Party in the 1920s, Mao Tse-Tung, is evident. Nevertheless such a title also allows thoughts about other large-scale migrations of living creatures. Think of the wildebeest in the African plains, or flows of refugees, escaping from whatever atrocities.” (from Chairs and Titles by Chris Manders in All in the Family, 2016)
The long march
We see, as it were, a cut-out from a massive and almost endless row of swaying and swaying chairs. The reference to the founder of the Chinese communist party in the 1920s, Mao Tse-toeng, is evident. But such a title also allows for thoughts about other colossal movements of living beings. Like wildebeest on the African plains, or refugees flow through any kind of violence. (from the text ‘Stoelen en Titels’ by Chris Manders from my book All in the family.)
To reflect
Reflection is something that literally happens in the right circumstances. In a metaphorical sense, it is of course also an important property. Kind of a meta skill. The chair draws us into this scene through the overshoulder. We take a look at a (the?) Committee, the tribunal on the other side, a certain tension is felt and visible in this way.
Babel
Many chairs are seen from the side without any depth effect, purely as a silhouette, still immediately recognizable. That quality combined with the ability to stack them, if not in real life at least mentally, in a manner similar to my earlier linocut Stacking, yielded this image. Shapes run into each other over residual forms play a role and form a lively graphic image.
No chair occurs twice and so this is a true tower of Babel with all unique building blocks.
Detachment
Detachment, in idea and also a bit in form, akin to ‘Chair in heaven‘. The legs can still be seen on the bottom of the image. The chosen position suggests a movement away from these legs. The rest chooses the airspace and has detached themselves from the earthly.
Duet I
Actually, I literally found these schoolchairs on a sunny day somewhere in a gallery. So in my oeuvre this is actually a bit of an outsider because ‘only’ directly more or less made from observation. See also other duets such as Duet II and Duet III and certainly also the Pas de Deux series.