Title

Chair Column

Artist

McWilliams, Al

Date

2015

Medium

bronze

Type

sculpture

Accession Number

NA

Location

4688 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC

Category

Private Development Public Art

Collection

Public Art

Lat/Long

49.228534,-123.002486

View in Google Maps

http://www.google.com/maps?q=49.228534,-123.002486

Taking the form of a chair, universally recognizable as a form and image, and enlarging its scale to move it out of its everyday context causes a shift in one’s sense of the everyday. Stacking three chairs one on top of the other to reach a height of 15 feet, as if to defy gravity, is a sleight of hand that moves the sculpture further from the quotidian into the realm of the symbolic and the abstract. The references are many --- the domestic, the corporate a seat of power, Brancusi’s ‘Endless Column’, Jacob’s Ladder, First Nation’s Totem Poles, etc. The repeated shapes create a simple yet intriguing whole --- from the back, the grid of the vertical and horizontal echo the surrounding architecture, while from the side the proportions seem more delicate, almost graphic, and speak to the body. The chairs are bronze --- a ‘noble’ metal with a long history in the realm of public art, a very warm and responsive material --- and placed directly on the plaza will invite direct engagement, touching and sitting.