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Rising Revolt
It’s almost impossible, especially for someone my age, not to have sat in a revolt chair somewhere in your life. Manufacturer Ahrend still makes this Friso Kramer design. One of the reasons to use this chair working on this idea. Of course, a recently purchased booklet, entirely devoted to this chair, gave it another boost. It also appears in my much larger work Crowd which I just completed, which is another reason.
Crowd
A large number of very different characters all have the same goal, it seems. They come running and go to… But where are they going? Are they gathering and possibly getting ready for something that is about to happen? A speach or a performance. Or is it a protest march? Is there too little sitting nowadays? Or too much of course.
Shades of grey
Step out of the shadows. When does a shadow cross into the tangible world? Is that possible? You can at least make the eye believe that. Albeit only very briefly, because then the ratio always comes into play.
It makes a difference that you can go through this ‘process’ again and again, that certainly contributes to the durability of the work.
Double portrait II
An expanded variation on Double Portrait that I made earlier this month. As is often the case, I was working on another drawing when this opportunity came up, so to speak. Then there’s nothing left but to try it out. To the satisfaction of the depicted chairs. Which in turn can be observed by taking the right position as a viewer.
Transplanted
Repotting, spacing young plants so that they have room to grow, I did a lot during summer jobs in my youth. This is in a way a playful reminder of that, at least in my head. Here the leg has been moved like a kind of shoot, but immediately to another dimension. Now just wait for it to grow out.
Double portrait
A chair portrayed as I did in the series of the same name (see for example Portrait 16 or Portrait 43), but this time with two chairs in one frame. So a double portrait. But is it?
Puzzeled
This chair by Cees Braakman, the sB02, already has a somewhat surprised look. At least for those who want to see it. Leaving out of its own shadow (is it?) that gaze is left behind. Amazement everywhere.
Next level
A slightly older desk chair helps with the helicopter view that is often missed in a regular office.
Mixed up IV
Pieces of DNA from very different chairs have been fused, through exquisite gene techniques and with my pencils as a microsurgical tools, into a new piece of furniture for a somewhat more outlandish couple. Obviously, the entourage cannot be left behind. It’s good that I have trouble throwing things away.
Backwards
Cees Braakman‘s SBo2 makes a hundred and eighty degree turn here where the handrail does not go along or does not want to. A simple intervention that is reinforced by using the third dimension a little bit. Reverse squared?
Look
Cees Braakman‘s SB02 is an unexpectedly rich source of ideas. It’s amazing how a casual discovery can yield such a series of images. For years I saw this SB02 with some regularity until at some point I noticed the resemblance of the placement of the screws to fix the backrest with eyes and mouth or nose. Drawn for the first time in the portrait series. Kijk! is also one of the earlier ones in this area. Some other designs also turned out to have these ‘facial features’: Backman, Couple or Portrait 33. Or what about ‘Encounter II‘.
Babels end III
When falling turns into a choreography with a carefully orchestrated place for all in the whole, the memory fades and the biblical story becomes a myth, and this composition the new reality. Everyday chairs next to icons from the design world, all the same and all different. Painted shadows compete with real shadows , providing a pleasant tingle that subtly changes with the passing of the hours.
Uittreden VI
This so-called button chair is a very common chair with many local varieties such as the Drentse or Brabant button chair. Relatively easy made just about anywhere, this was a godsend for the less wealthy environments by using readily available cheap materials. Maybe by far the most renowned example although without a knob, is the one painted by Vincent van Gogh ‘Chair with pipe‘ in the collection of the National gallery in London.