Austin Museum of Art

Texas Chair Project

November 15, 2008 - February 8, 2009

Art Party at the Urban Center for Contemporary Arts.

exhibition announcement

Texas Chair Project sculpture by Jimmy Kuehnle.

Chair I Stole From a Bum - Jimmy Kuehnle - 2007

Texas artist Damian Priour created 100 miniature chairs of glass and fossil-imbedded limestone and mailed them to 100 Texas artists, asking them to send him back one chair of their own making in return. The final Texas Chair Project will be on view at AMOA fall 2008.

I received my chair while still living in San Antonio before going to Japan. The parameters for the show were perfect for participating form overseas since the sculpture had to fit in an eight inch cube. I decided that I did not want to make a miniature chair. I also did not want to make a chair that expanded or unfolded after being unpacked. I wanted the chair to be useable within the size constraints. As I traveled around Japan I noticed lots of people in parks sitting on whatever object was available.

I saw groups of individuals sitting in small circles having a great time not going to work. A vagrant lifestyle can have a lot of pluses but there are also some minuses. In a way of capturing the good times of sitting in a park with friends I decided to emulate this lifestyle with my submission to the Texas Chair Project. I used an old rusty tin can that had been used as a chair in a park.

Grab the chair, head outside, loose your shoes, find a cheap beer and plop yourself down on this rusty can to forget about all the pointless things that you think matter in life. Take it easy and relax because you only get one chance at this. Learn more at http://www.thechairproject.net/

Press Release - pdf

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Address

Austin Museum of Art
823 Congress Avenue at 9th Street
Austin, TX
512 495 9224
www.amoa.org