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Bused Up

10th October 2009: I stopped walking when I saw this broken chair at the bus stop opposite Essex Road Station yesterday. I wondered why it had been left there. Evidently it had been in good condition until it had been shattered across the back somehow. Had it been chucked out of home just because it was looking a bit tired? Or was it more complex than that? I think I can make a good home for this chair even if its back is broken; I dont think the bus stop will miss it too much, there was no queue anyway.

Bused Up tells the story of a once abandoned chair and its subsequent reincarnations as a collection of useful new artefacts, that were born, dictated and restricted by a single object.

Since living with the bust up chair, I noticed that the different parts naturally lend themselves to new uses, owing in large part to their physical proportions in relation to the human body. There were also significant moments of serendipity which seemed to confirm the direction of the new objects. These were each born using the minimum of additional components and include: a bedside table with light, a pair of drumsticks fashioned from chair spindles and a coat hanger utilising the top of the original chair back.

Sourced from Bus Stop ED, Essex Road Station.

Exhibited in Lightworks, Marsden Woo Gallery, London, 2010.