Paper-mâché Schoolchairs

Chairs is a serie of papier-mâché chairs painted as trompe l’oeils.

I chose this object because it is necessary in everyday life and can yet be very easely forgotten. It is noticed when its missing. I often spend time in alternative spaces, A serie of paper-mâché chairs, benches and stools painted as trompe l’oeils. I chose these objects because I encountered them in places that had the fonction of educating me : School, university, military service… I noticed that they were a way of regulating the way people inhabited these spaces. For
example in school, the way the students are sitting in the room can say many things : you can align and separate them if you want them work individually, or make a circle if you want them to work in groups. I was interested in the
way people claimed them by drawing and scratching graffitis or putting stickers with political slogans on them : I believe that they are the carriers of a certain culture.

I usually exhibit these works with a rap song I wrote and sang about a work experience where I unfairly lost my teaching job at a private school.

These sculptures require a very demanding painting and sculpting process. The technique consists in making an exterior mold of the chair with papier-mâché and then painting it with acrylic colours. I then carve words or symbols
in them and put previously painted stickers on them.