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Foc<strong>us</strong> on...
seat sebastian ascending
by Ben Fowler
How did you get involved with the 24 Chairs
Exhibition? The curator S<strong>us</strong>anne Wolf had lots
of Lewes artists to work with, so she invited me
as a furniture designer, and one or two others, to
broaden it out a bit.
Tell me about this chair: Possibly the most
famo<strong>us</strong> chair in the world is Arne Jacobsen’s
Butterfly Chair, which is a lot like this one. There
is a photo of Christine Keeler sitting on it that
became iconic beca<strong>us</strong>e of the Profumo scandal.
Why did you choose to transform it in this
way? I began thinking of all sorts of things chairlike,
but then I thought no, it would be nice to do
something unfamiliar. I decided to make it very
difficult to sit in, and then I remembered a fantastic
painting of Saint Sebastian. I’m not familiar with the religio<strong>us</strong> message, to me it’s j<strong>us</strong>t a beautiful
image, I like the way the arrows spear him all over but he still looks calm.
Did you make it impossible to sit on beca<strong>us</strong>e ‘Design has to work, art does not?’ That’s
right, art has to be <strong>us</strong>eless, doesn’t it! My dad once said, “The thing about chairs is, you can sit
on almost anything.” Chairs are pretty <strong>us</strong>eless; they are the things that come closest to fine art
for designers and you can have real fun designing them.
Did you make the arrows? My son Dom and I made the arrows. My sweetheart Sarah, Dom
and I talked about the brief a lot. Artists think it all up in their own heads but I can’t do that. I
have ideas and talk about them and see what happens.
What makes a good chair? Something that looks gorgeo<strong>us</strong> and makes you want to sit on it,
and I think it helps if it’s comfortable.
Have you got a favourite chair? The Wishbone Chair by Hans J. Wegner, it’s a really beautiful,
elegant, modern version of a Windsor chair: very comfortable, but mainly very pretty. CK
The 24 chairs Exhibition, in which each chair has been ‘modified’ by an artist or designer, is at the
Foundry Gallery from 18th - 25th Sept. On 25th Sept the chairs will be auctioned to raise money for
the Lewes Community Land Tr<strong>us</strong>t. Ben’s furniture can be seen at www.fowlerco.co.uk.
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