The Chair

Before this course i had no knowledge of art history and really didn't get modern art at all, but i now have a real appreciation for the concepts and thinking behind the work that is in galleries. I am drawn to bizarre exhibits that don't make any sense until you hear the story behind the idea.

Tracey Enim the Bed 1998

Marcel Duchamp Bicycle Wheel 1913

Fountain 1917

Joseph Beuys Fat Chair 1964

I found this chair in an antiques market in Manchester and thought it was perfect for this project. Because i had been reminiscing about my childhood the fact that it was child's high chair fitted the bill, and i immediately saw it as restrictive because a child is restrained in a high chair with reins,( similar to the restraints forced on me as a child by my religion!)

I decided to paint the chair white to signify purity and saintliness but i also wanted it to have a grubby/ stained appearance with reference to the Church's darker side. My mum who attended a convent school had remembered a prayer that she had been made to receipt in class and she found a copy of it online for me :

Its called Act Of Reporation and is a hideous hate prayer , i wanted to include this text in the piece along with an image of 'gentle' Jesus and one of my own favourite lines " is that what Jesus would do" .I found it amazing as a child that the church congregation ( mainly elderly women) chanted prayers out parrot fashion with no thought as to what they were actually saying! I used plastic Rosary beads to create the reins for my high chair and placed a lamp above the chair to represent the light of the world ,and to put Catholicism under the spot light!

image of finished piece to follow!