Social Distance Courting Chair
Light and Shadow Manipulation, Wood (2020)
Courting chairs, a precursor to the love seat, are seats arranged in an S-shape, so that two people can converse face-to-face while being within an arm's reach of each other. “Social Distance Courting Chair” is the image of one such chair, made using light and shadow. This piece communicates lost social and physical interactions and reflects on how dating, courtship and intimacy have dramatically changed during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Under the threat of COVID-19, we are told that we should be practicing six feet of social distancing, often resulting in connecting with one another virtually while sitting in a chair. The image of the person on the screen becomes a shadow of their physical existence, a reflection of the real person without the physical substance. This piece reflects on these conditions and how they evoke a sense of both presence and absence.
The sparseness of this piece reveals working with limited resources and no access to a studio. I used only what I had around me to create this piece in hopes of starting a dialogue about how connection with one another is being affected during this time. In thinking about presence and absence, this image also aims to connect the physical and metaphysical, darkness and enlightenment, the tangible and the virtual.
Courting chairs, a precursor to the love seat, are seats arranged in an S-shape, so that two people can converse face-to-face while being within an arm's reach of each other. “Social Distance Courting Chair” is the image of one such chair, made using light and shadow. This piece communicates lost social and physical interactions and reflects on how dating, courtship and intimacy have dramatically changed during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Under the threat of COVID-19, we are told that we should be practicing six feet of social distancing, often resulting in connecting with one another virtually while sitting in a chair. The image of the person on the screen becomes a shadow of their physical existence, a reflection of the real person without the physical substance. This piece reflects on these conditions and how they evoke a sense of both presence and absence.
The sparseness of this piece reveals working with limited resources and no access to a studio. I used only what I had around me to create this piece in hopes of starting a dialogue about how connection with one another is being affected during this time. In thinking about presence and absence, this image also aims to connect the physical and metaphysical, darkness and enlightenment, the tangible and the virtual.