Entangled
Found objects, rope, brown paper, and tape
Dimensions: Variable
This installation features two chairs, a small ‘child sized’ chair and a standard ‘adult sized’ one, bound and woven together by knotted lengths of rope. The installation pays homage to a long tradition of works that represent the mother and child, dating back to early Medieval religious icons. Unlike traditional figurative paintings, the reference to the human relational dimension is here indirectly stated via the empty chairs, evoking subtle ghostly presences by means of association.
The viewer’s attention is drawn primarily to their point of connection: that is, to the excessively long and entangled rope that binds the two chairs together. Although plain and white, the twisted and knotted rope conjures up references to images of the internal body: coiled intestines, or perhaps a surreal, impossibly long knotted umbilical cord. The relationship between adult and child is clearly represented as one of mutual interdependence. However, although the two chairs are closely knotted together, indicating physical proximity and intimacy, the sinister surroundings and the abject, long, and knotted ‘umbilical cord’ speak of the darker internal turmoil of emotional dependency. Entangled is an externalised projection of human ambiguity, speaking of the easy inevitability, yet also of the knotted complexity of human bonds.