Consider the act of arranging a home, or a stage. The objects we interact with mediate our relationships to people and, through the act of mediating, absorb something of us. I keep seeing chairs discarded on
the side of the street and I wonder why. Do these chairs - these sites of intimacy and conversation - have a capacity for remembering? Perhaps when they become too saturated with memory they must be purged.
In her essay Seated Figure with Red Angle (1988) by Betty Goodwin, Anne Carson presents a list of hanging conditionals. The lack of resolution is uncomfortable, like a chair where sitting is impossible or unpleasant. But when the “then” to an “if” does not make itself readily available, there is room to ponder.
This project was displayed at the Rotunda Gallery in Kitchener, Ontario. I gratefully acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council in producing this exhibition.
