My most recently completed Sculpture I project was one inspired by the well-known painter, sculptor, writer, and chess player, Marcel Duchamp. I have always been intrigued by his readymades, which were basically everyday objects that he signed, making them art since an artist signed it. Some of his readymades were taken a step farther by combining two completely usable objects together to make both of them now utterly useless. This is the inspiration I used to create my stool.
My Duchamp-inspired stool is constructed from wood, steel, copper, and plexiglass. I started by creating the legs of the stool, which were cut from a stencil out of oak. The rim of the seat was made by rolling a sheet of steel into a circle and welding together the ends. For cosmetic purposes, I decided to attach copper flashing around the center of the steel using rivets. For the foot rest, I decided to mimic the copper around the seat with a copper-plated ground rod I found at Lowe’s (Browsing Lowe’s is one of my favorite past times). This rod was also rolled into a circle, then inserted into holes in each leg of the stool. The seat was my favorite part to make. I visited Penaplas to pick up some scraps of plexiglass and cut the thickest into a circle to create the seat. I also used some thinner pieces to cut into shards that I attached to make the stool useless. However, since I am not a famous artist or have an endless supply of money, I decided I wasn’t going to spend this much time and money on a stool that I just made useless. So, I created the seat to be flippable. The shards can also point down so that the stool can be sat on.
To date, I think this is my favorite piece I have ever built. It was very enjoyable to make as well. I spent quite a bit of time, energy, and money on this project, but I am over the moon with the outcome!
Let me know what you think!