Breath Chair

My work begins with old medical journals, MRI scans and maps. Old, redundant and anatomically dubious illustrations are redrawn in pencil and combined with representations of man-made and natural systems, such as maps and diagrams. I am motivated by affinity between imaginative representations of the body and images of man-made and natural systems. This affinity leads to a single mode of representation in which the body and man-made and natural worlds can be seen as a single but multilayered system of imaginative representation. Since all representations are both the presence and the absence of what is represented, my single, multi-layered system of imaginative representation is also a single system of presence and absence.

The presence of an imaginative body is combined with the presence of a system. What is absent from the body is fulfilled by the presence of the system and likewise what is absent from the system is fulfilled by the presence of the body. The system of representation in presence and absence shows that locales, places and territories are imaginatively bound to bodies and the extension of bodies into the world is fundamental to the imaginative process of inhabitation. Bodies and territories are thereby layered in what philosophers call “becoming.” 

I use the images of body parts, maps and other systematic representations as formal compositional elements, actual maps of city transport systems are drawn and interwoven with the imagined and realistic images of body organs, creating an imaginary system of networks and relationships. The result is a tangle of arteries and veins that reveal hybrid systems of movement and the body in the world.

'Symbiosis' Chair Series

In 'Symbiosis' anatomical mystery collides with domesticity. The Arne Jacobson’s design icon, the Series 7 chair morphs into forms inspired by anatomical drawings.  The intersection of two things that we take for granted everyday: our internal organs and dining room chairs. These particular chairs were either found on the street near my studio in Surry Hills or were given to me.

The internal organs chosen are mainly those in the torso – the part of the body that would be in direct contact with a chair. Some chairs have been sliced into skeletal patterns, others have been invaded by drooping veins of clear silicon or pierced by the repetitive prick of a needle and thread. All of these intriguing, ambiguous sculptures reflect my ongoing fascination with things both familiar and hidden and my desire to expose internal structures.

Lisa Jones 2014

Glossary

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