May 25, 1910: Deconstruction/Reconstruction
(2023)
36’’ x 36’’ x 52’’
Mixed Upholstery Materials
This chair has been in the building since I started teaching–for at least 30 years. The building tends to accumulate various items over time, people donate furnuture and supplies they think students might need for theater and drawing props, so the provenance of a chair such as this is hard to know. It had become beat up, and finally it found its way to a corner of the ground floor where it might be filed into its next phase of life (dumpster or donation). But as I investigated it more closely to see if its cushions could be saved or how I might recycle its parts, I was intrigued that it seemed to contain no plastic in its construction. This led me to gingerly finish its deconstruction–out of curiosity for its construction process and respect for the old materials. And so I took it apart. I fell in love with the craftsmanship of the work–layers of metal springwork wrapped, sewn, and trussed among cotton batting and muslin casings. Partial circles of iron rust formed visual rings tracing their years hugging their cotton wool casements. I laid the pieces out as I took them apart, which eventually formed the work as a reverse design diagram–an exploded view of the mechanism for comfort. The care about craftsmanship and skills with the various materials made me care about it. No plastic? What a concept for 21st century America. It made love the crafter’s values for making an object with a depth of attention for longevity. Making a piece to outlast their own lifetime and into the next generation. The ethos of an architect for the lifetime of a building. In the final extrication, down to the wood, I noticed a date on the cross bar. I recognized the long-hand training of the artist through the curly ends of the number 2. After research into how furniture was manufactured in 1910, I surmised, with only the common sense of knowing credible websites, that the date inscribed was its true origination date.
Exhibition details:
Rescue: Waste and Redemption
Lizzie Zucker Saltz, curator
“I love the idea of redemption through transformation, and how the artists in RESCUE embody that kind of material alchemy.” – Lizzie Zucker Saltz, Curator.
Selected artists: Adah Bennion, Paul Blake, Lisa Freeman, Heather Bird Harris, Susan Lenz, Casey McGuire, Larry Millard, Zachary Naylor, Johanna Norry, Emily Peters, Pilar, Paula Reynaldi, Nell Ruby, Lisa Schnellinger, Lenore Solmo, Kelly Thompson, Gregor Turk, Jon Vogt, Michael Webster, Matthew White, Kelsey Wishik and Joni Younkins.
Guest Curator Saltz believes that “Rescue’s twenty-four artists’ will heighten audiences’ awareness of these core environmental issues.”
Link to the Exhibition Catalog
Nell Ruby’s 5.25.1910: Deconstruction/Reconstruction presents us with a 3-D recreation of an exploded chair diagram, as if
it was in the process of being manufactured, but in reverse. We
are used to seeing the image of a product design in an exploded view, but those predict the future not the past, which adds a
surreal layer to her installation. (Most new products have no Cradle-to-Grave plan, not to mention a Cradle-to-Cradle Certification stamp; hopefully we will see this change. Cradle-to-Cradle
Certification is given to products and systems that mimic nature
and are efficient, fair, and waste-free.33 Ruby shows us a product
in an exploded view at its death, using its actual materials.
The artist came upon the idea when breaking down a chair
for disposal and catching sight of its date of manufacture;
‘5.25.1910.’ She soon gained an appreciation of each turn-ofthe-century part, most of which could be reused or recycled. This
is in contrast to most of today’s ‘fast furniture,’ whose components often include off-gassing foam and un-recyclable fiber
board held together by a formaldehyde glue. Ruby writes that
she “Was taken by the care of craft of its assembly and primarily
by use of materials that involved tying, trussing, wrapping,
packing wrapping and NO plastic; its baton had so organically—almost lovingly taken on the impression of the springs that
it encased, that I became gentle with the rest of my deconstruction, and discovered layer by layer a beauty and integrity to the
whole.”
Sharing her love-affair with this handsome chair provides us
with an anecdote that encapsulates a century of manufacturing
change, away from reusable components and towards landfilling pollutants. Hopefully we will see a move toward closed-loop
economies. When you shop, look for wood furniture made from
reclaimed wood and from wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council or the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.34