ongoing thoughts...little hand printed and cut out benches,(implying much hope? )
There is also the “pira” or the little bench that refers to small incremental gestures that build up over time. This what I feel that I am going after with my little daily drawings.
It’s the kind of bench that people use to do simple humble daily things like weeding a garden or vending at the side of the road or shining a shoe and so on. It’s often portable and is often intriguingly worn or weathered into shape by use over extended periods of time. I feel that these little gestures are the foundation of a global economic reality that is not seen for what it is. Often it is discussed as some kind of inefficient and errant form. A messy problem to be corrected or reformed. This is why I brought it together with the old Colonial map - for the moment.
Further thoughts:10/03/09
Is Hope an idea or a concept that is easily materialized or inferred? Maybe not - because it may be an active conjuring or imagining of possibility? I was attracted to the bench design as it recalled a modest however naïve and idealistic time in my life. A time in which I was not too “exposed,” so to speak, and so I had to figure ways or functioning with very little in hand. By the way, then, the “little in hand,” felt like the world and the ability to transform these few things through imaginative reverie, as, for example, in the games of childhood, was quite exhilarating.
It all keeps coming back to me when I see the way these little work-benches are put together or designed. Designed is the better word as it implies a solidity of intent.
I was concerned with ( inspired by?) the make-shift which I knew and had come to understand, even accept in a place like Trinidad . However its familiarity was less than comforting or consoling than it was comfortable or accommodating.
Through my knowledge and or familiarity, a tension lingered in my mind/sense between the formor process being “ all I know” or just “what I know.”
So I keep drawing and investigating this bench form.
3 comments:
Hi Mr. Cozier, i was intrigued by your art work but still do not quite understand your re-occuring theme of the bench and what it symbolizes, can you please explain and give me your background for choosing a bench.
Hi Chris,
Indeed intriguing, your use of benches in your art. In Suriname, where I live, the Maroon people in the interior make beautiful benches, we call them bangis. The have elaborate woodcarving on them. There are many different benches for a variety of purposes, and also: with different meanings. The Indigenous people have benches too, often shaped as animals (alligators for example).
Hope to see your work once, for real, not only on internet. Regards,
Marieke
thank you christopher,
the meaning of the benches, to you personally, was not addressed as it is here, in the dartmouth catologue of your exhibit.
very insightful, and refreshing beauty is there:)
much love...
johna
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