‘This body does not belong to you’ - 2023

As part of Demo Valley exhibition held at Project Space Plus and Fine Art Studios, University of Lincoln, LN6 7TS. 

(Degree show work for BA Fine Art degree.) 

 

The three hanging chair sculptures after the degree show opening night. Are designed to support weight and use as normal chair. 

 

Seen closest to camera (far right) - encoded chair 

The end of the lifecycle, the body has been expended. What remains is a scarred carcass that tells a story from which the piece gets its name. 

 

As Epictetus is told by Zeus : “ If it were possible, I would have made your little body and possessions both free and unrestricted. As it is, though, make no mistake: this body does not belong to you, it is only cunningly constructed clay.” 

 

The hieroglyphic seen telling this story is a shorthand I developed when studying ancient Inca Quipus, which were the knotted rope objects used in place of written languages we recognise today. 

 

Linking to back to opioid use, shamans in South America (where Quipus developed) have been using hallucinogenic plants such as ayahuasca for millennia, in order to gain precise (scientifically backed) plant knowledge. They believe the plants themselves are teachers about life. 

 

Middle-Soy felt covered in latex- soft and fluffy on the inside to imply a germination has occurred, growth begins, life is happening. 

 

Intended to make the user feel comforted and calm, a womb, a nest for recuperating. 

 

Far left- Beginning of the cycle, this chair is a mixture of latex and poppyseeds over a steel frame skeleton. Poppyseed and soy felt cover the seat. 

 

The seeds are suspended in a milky latex mixture, reminiscent of semen, opium (derived from poppy seed pods) or safety. The idea of the seed implies inevitable growth and regeneration, a rebirth. A new experience may be about to unfold. However in contradiction to this idea of growth the inevitable poppies grown from the seeds have connotations of sleep and death. 

Opium itself has connotations of narcotic use and subsequent changed realities, altered perceptions and questions of truth. 

 

I enjoy the ability for this artwork to evolve through use and for its meaning to be changed with each new interaction. As the seat of the poppyseed chair has a poppyseed and soy felt covering. Through use, the felt covering is worn away, exposing more and more seeds which get caught in clothing and spread across the gallery and out into the wider world.