DRAW A CHAIR / TELL ME A STORY
2022, New York NY
Temporary Interactive Public Installation
This project was a public storytelling exercise, collecting drawings and stories of chairs from strangers over 3 days in New York’s Washington Square Park. The prompt was to ‘draw a chair from memory or imagination, write why you chose to draw it.’ After speaking to a couple hundred people many asked, why chairs? My response was always the same, I love talking to people about the chairs in their lives because I end up learning about them and the people they love.
25-26 September, 2022
Washington Square Park, New York NY
Later exhibited opening night of Pink Essay’s ‘Wear Your Chair’ pop-up exhibition at Nomia NYC
The goal of this public exercise and installation was to offer strangers an opportunity to think about the memories and emotional connections they have to furniture. The plywood chair displayed a description of the project and the prompt in vinyl. The angled bottom of the chair was used to hold a notepad I bound and mounted to a drawing surface with a pen attached. The peg board chair silhouette was used to display the participant's work.
Thoughtful conversations were had, and I got to watch people smile as they read strangers’ stories displayed on the pegboard. The stories and drawings were intimate and gave touching insights into our actions and attachments to the chairs and people in our lives.
