MIT Museum

“Cory’s Yellow Chair” by Arthur Ganson

Before my nose is an array of shapes: squares, circles, stars, rectangles. These shapes form the mold that slowly creates and instantly destroys a toy chair. A square canvas, a grey canvas with metal chains and rectangular rods and circular motors and gears, has at the center a small wooden chair painted mustard yellow. But then, suddenly, the chair disappears.

The chains are arranged in the shape of a six-point star, with rods stemming from each tip. In each rod is a small part of the greater chair, and when the motors are turned on with the press of a pedal, the gears turn along the chain, moving each rod in a clockwise direction, taking with it a piece of the chair. The rods travel along a circular path and return to their origin, making a clanging noise each time.

            The intricacy of the chains and the positioning of the arms add to the beauty of the star, both in motion and rest. The speed of the opening and closing varies; when the chair is ripped apart, the arms draw it back fairly quickly and then the speed diminishes as the individual pieces travel at the end of the arms in a clockwise motion. The arms finally speed up again to rejoin the other parts at the center of the canvas. A full chair is present at the center of the star for barely a second, whereas the individual pieces travel separately for ten seconds. The pieces look like they are struggling to break free of the force causing them to divide, and then the pieces grasp for one another when the opportunity arises to rejoin at the center. Unfortunately, when the chair is joined at the center of the star, none of the pieces come into full contact with the others, as if their attempt to unite after all the struggling against the forceful arms is futile.

            As I watch the uniform motion, I become mesmerized. I change positions, viewing the sculpture from afar. The metal arms seem so thin they become almost difficult to see. For this reason, when the chair is being taken apart, it looks like the individual pieces are moving on their own, floating away from one another slowly in a clockwise motion but eventually making their way back. This makes the pieces seem as if they are in control of their own separation, doing it of their own will rather than being forced by the metal arms, as it seems when I look at the sculpture up-close. I shift yet again, observing now from a side angle, where it is almost impossible to see the intricacy of the metal arrangement, but rather only half of the chair forming on the –z axis. Finally, I stare into the distance, noticing the sculpture in my peripheral vision, where the arrangement of the arms as they open and close resembles a futuristic vault opening up and then closing again with the door at the center being the same mustard yellow as that of the toy chair.

Next to the sculpture is a descriptive plaque reading “Cory’s Yellow Chair (1997) – mixed media.” I ask myself: Who is Cory? Was this really his toy chair? What is his motive for constantly disassembling and reassembling the chair? I search the internet for Ganson’s inspiration for the sculpture and find that the creator’s son, Cory, always had a fascination with mechanics and movement, to the point of drawing out diagrams in explicit detail. Both Ganson and Cory would spend hours dissecting these drawings, discussing each individual gear and knob. This personal experience influenced Ganson to make the kinetic sculpture using his son’s real yellow toy chair, recreating it over and over again, almost like a memory (Davidson).

Each individual piece that each arm carries plays just as important a role in assembling the final chair at the center of the star; the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The simplicity of the chair, although miniature and only present for a second, in contrast to the complexity of the kinetic component of the sculpture, is what makes the sculpture so captivating as a whole.

Bibliography

Davidson, Martha. “Innovative Lives: Arthur Ganson, Metaphysics in Motion.” N.p., 9 Mar. 2005
Web. 2015. http://invention.si.edu/innovative-lives-arthur-ganson-metaphysics-motion.