Staples, Fables and Failed Systems
This work explores the content of upholstery rather than the past two years investigating the vocabulary of furniture. Previous works were developed through studio work to better understand my medium. This established a platform for narrative sculpture pertaining to self, dysfunctional family and chronic pain. By presenting comfortable versus unfamiliar, I created a body of work titled Familiarture.
'Staple' September 2008
The work was sometimes viewed as whimsical, humorous and well crafted versus the subject matter of uncomfortable or dark. I decided to create more vague, weird and ambiguous objects rather than the recognizable or utilitarian Familiarture. This abstraction to form provided the necessary means to remove the precious object and upholster a more organic or morphing form. This allowed me to develop a body of work that removed any notion of function and present new concepts to work from.
'Fable 1', 'Fable 2' , 'Fable 3' October, November 2008
Through studio practice, patience and process I have realized that upholstery has many facets of content to study and draw from: folds, staples, foam, batting, legs, hardware, glides, tacks, bias, tapestries, stitch count, and genre. This allowed me to further my investigation of upholstery in a more conceptual manner and thoroughly understand new strategies for creating sculpture.
The most interesting event for me was when the staple failed either by operator or by physics. These failed systems during upholstery became another way to study and investigate new forms. Subconsciously these discarded staples were showing up in my drawings and models as slim, organic forms. This all came to realization one day in the studio after re-stapling a past work, when I happened to look down and notice how wonderful these failed staples were and how they could be used as content, form and commentary to upholstery. The discarded staples possessed more interesting shapes and forms to address than the current drawings could ever be.
M. Angelo Arnold
