Couch/Wall, 2018 - 2019.
The simple rearrangement of furniture and placing a couch or loveseat to face the wall allowed the reframing of a conversation. While couches facing the wall might violate the domestic norms of comfort, the placement allowed for a situation in which outside forces could be put on pause as the white wall blocked out any unnecessary distractions and became a pure backdrop upon which the human voice could be projected. Using this staging, Josh Elston had a largely uninterrupted conversation with a friend over strained subject matter. |
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Couch/Wall #2 (Finding Center/Moving Center), 2020-21
Special thanks to Hanyu Liao, the show's curator, for installation assistance. This wall installation was placed in the lobby of 500 Seneca in Buffalo, NY. A movable wall is placed to create a corridor space with a couch facing the permanent wall at the end. On the opposite side of the wall (aimed to be seen by all visitors entering and exiting the elevator), a series of questions probe the viewer to consider their relationship to institutions and their own place within their communities. Many of the questions are framed under the context of respect and how one's actions, big and small, can reinforce or change our opinions. The work was installed during building hours over several days, creating a performative and time based aspect of when the questions emerged. Oftentimes, people's conversations on the Couch/Wall half would be informed by the viewer's self reflection from the text half. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown that happened roughly a week and half after being installed, the Couch/Wall portion of this installation was suspended early, though the wall text remained on display for the whole exhibition duration. |
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Table Game, 2018 - 2019. Several included photographs courtesy of Xiao Yang.
As an interactive sculpture, Table Game featured a deck of playing cards that could be played with a group of participants. Each of the over 45 playing cards requested the participant who drew it from the deck to perform a certain action that dealt with social interactions at the table. The table itself featured a circle inscribed by a rectangle, complicating western notions of the "head of the table" and questioning how spatial patterns impact human behavior. Through playing multiple rounds of the game, the table asserted itself as a spatial character over the participants. |
Social/Personal Function of a Table, 2016. Wood, 36 x 96 x 48in.
As a table with its top removed and replaced with a series of rails, this interactive sculpture allowed multiple gallery visitors to roll marbles down the tracks at the same time. No longer housing the physical function of a dining table to hold dinner plates or food, the work instead focuses on the social functions of a table as people gather to converse. After rolled down at a starting point, the marble would reach a fork in the road and would by pure chance go one way or another... sometimes ending up in a dedicated place, sometimes falling off the track, sometimes passing by a marble started by another. The piece was meant to create a visual metaphor for the flow of a conversation, in all its failures and successes. |
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