Sixteen fourth-year interior design students in the school of design at ASU have created chairs from everyday items symbolizing violence against women to raise money for domestic violence victims.
This event, titled “CHAIRity 2001,” showcases six chairs by ASU students working with a budget of $35 per group, which consist of two or three people. The chairs will be auctioned off at a silent auction and the proceeds will benefit victims of domestic violence.
Janetta McCoy, assistant professor in the school of design, has supervised this project for three years now, but this is the first time that the event has been made a part of the curriculum at ASU. The students started working on the chairs on the first day of class this fall semester and submitted the chairs the day after Labor Day.
“The students enjoy this project a lot as it involves their artistic ability with the idea that their work will help victims of domestic violence recover,” McCoy said. “The outcome of this project involves hope for those women who have been victims of domestic violence.”
McCoy said that the unique use of a chair as a symbol of domestic violence probably originated from the fact that this project is sponsored by the United States Business Interiors, a furniture company, as a fundraiser for the City of Phoenix Family Advocacy Center.
“The creation of these chairs is an expression of the students’ artistic ability,” McCoy said, “But it also involves them in researching and understanding the art that they produce and in that context this project is a combination of both art and science.”
Participants Lindsey Carlsness and Brooke Morgan designed a chair around two bottles with rebar, a metal rod wrapped around it.
“We wanted to use the bottles to symbolize alcoholism, which is a part of domestic violence,” Carlsness said. “At the same time, since these chairs are for an auction, our exhibit is small enough to be placed on a table as a centerpiece or used as a candlestick.”
“We thought of taking something you see everyday, like bottles, and changing it to a work of art by making it beautiful,” Carlsness said.
Jill Gibney worked with Steffanie Jensen and Jaci Boehler to create a chair covered with a red spaghetti-strap dress and titled it “Rouge.”
Gibney said that the painting that inspired the chair depicts a couple dancing on the beach with the girl wearing a red dress while a butler and maid hold an umbrella for them as it is raining.
“The painting inspired us to use the red dress as the girl was shown enjoying life and having fun and that is what we wanted to show,” Gibney said.
McCoy said this particular chair creation was a depiction of women having the right to enjoy the good life and not remain trapped by domesticity.
Another chair to be auctioned in this event takes its inspiration from the movies and is called the “reel chair,” as movies are often looked at as a form of escape, and the chair is supposed to depict an escape from violence.
CHAIRity 2001 will take place on Oct. 25 at the U.S.B.I. Interiors from 5 to 8 p.m. at 3003 N. Central Ave., Phoenix.
Reach Vedatrayee C. Banerjee at ctitam@hotmail.com.
