An artist shapes the contours of dark wood-grain chairs with resin to create an optical illusion of disappearing furniture. Tatiane Freitas, a visual artist from São Paolo, creates a visually-arresting series of objects, beginning with My Old New Chair, to communicate a concept half rooted in the present-day, and the other half in a malleable interpretation of the future. Constructed from pieces of wood, acrylic paint, and resin, the installations-meet-household-designs are part of a larger series called Choices.
The vanishing quality of each chair—some appearing old-fashioned, others designed with a modern edge—is elaborated through a popular theme in Freitas’s work: an examination of the past juxtaposed against the limitless possibilities of tomorrow. As the artist describes in an artist statement, “A creative subject, which permeates most of [my] work, is transforming common objects with a balance between the eternal struggle which we all live, the concept of ‘past x present,’ ‘old x young.’”
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Freitas, who studied fashion at school, also has a personal interest in home design and conceptual art. Minimalist style is an intentional contrast to the artist’s message. The increasingly complicated nature of life, with its constant stream of new choices, presents a dense flurry of preponderances next to the chairs’ objectively sparse design. Each piece’s dichotomous look shapes the idea of how the future, sleek and indiscernible, sits restlessly next to the solidified concept of history.
The artist shared a few words about her project, Choices, with The Creators Project: “Beyond these more subjective questions, My Old New Chair, is the first object of a series of works that instigates the reflection on the excess of options that paralyzes. Cultural relativism that threatens to subjugate ethics and critical thinking. The postmodern individual is free not only to make his choices, but also to assign meaning to them. In existentialist terms, we are all condemned to our own freedom, as Sartre said, and the responsibility inherent in it.”
My Old New Chair III
Dear Bed
My Old New Chair II
See more artwork, including each piece of the My Old New Chair concept, from Tatiane Freitas on her website, here.
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