In my sculpture class the task was to construct a chair and then turn the chair into a sculpture. The idea was that a piece of furniture is not art, therefore, something needs to be done in order for the chair to be art.
My idea was based around the concept of time and waiting; the moss represents time. My story involved me being a part of the sculpture. The chair has legs and a human as legs, however, a chair can't go like a human can. At first I sat on this chair, and then left. The chair is waiting for me to come back. At this time the moss is growing on the chair. There are two periods of time involved in this piece; the moss and the wood of the chair. The twist is, the moss is actually dead because I ripped it from the ground, therefore, it can't grow anymore. This suggests that time is always standing still. Eventually, the chair has no purpose when no one is sitting in it, besides the idea of the moss "growing" on it. When someone is using the chair then it establishes a purpose.
My professor said that the idea was very intellectual and romantic. More specifically the idea of romanticism comes into play. This was a time/era where there was a strong belief in the interest and importance of nature and the free expression of the feelings of the artists. This is a philosophical theory that sees the individual at the center of all life, and it places the individual, therefore, at the center of art, thus making a valuable expression of unique feelings and particular attitudes in portraying experiences. However even when fragmentary and incomplete, the values relate to completeness and unity. Although romanticism at times regards nature as conflicting, it more often sees in nature a revelation of truth. Romanticism seeks to find the absolute, the ideal, by transcending the actual, whereas realism finds its values in the actual and naturalism in the scientific laws the undergird the actual.
