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The piece was originally a performance where the
audience entered a small confined room with a little glass chair
sitting on the floor. The chair was made of bent glass tubing and
had a high resistance wire inside, connected with wires to a dimmer
switch on the wall. The electricity was slowly turned up and the
chair warmed up into a yellow glow. It moved a little while the
wire expanded but then settled. After a few minutes the electricity
was slowly turned down, and because the wire contracted the thin
glass tubing cracked with a little ticking sound. Finally the chair
collapsed from the cracking and appeared to "die." See
video
Glass is commonly used as an insulator for electricity,
in order to protect us from something potentially lethal. The piece
is a social/political statement as a criticism of capital punishment,
in its demonstration of the fragility of life.
In an exhibition at the Sunderland City Art
Centre, England, this piece was exhibited in a show lasting for
50 days. I made 50 chairs, each left turned on for the whole day
and turned off at night. The dead chairs were collected in a pile
by the gallery attendant.
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