Sofa Destruction Project
The pattern of destruction generally starts with a feeling of frustration. The breaking point is in search of a feeling of relief. I have been building with the goal of perfection, a pristine, geometrically accurate, balanced object. When I was asked at what point within my process, I felt most satisfied with my work, I realised that my sense of satisfaction comes within the act of building. The frustration comes thereafter when the object is built, I am no longer building, and I become frustrated. Then I start destroying the very thing that I have just poured all my effort into in hopes of regaining and grasping onto the satisfaction that I felt as I was building it.
Controlling and harnessing the cathartic feeling of destring the thing that I have built by building to destroy, plotting destruction, predicting destruction, then destroying. Thus, theoretically removing the feeling of frustration that usually accompanies the process of destruction. Instead turning it into a process that is intentional, precise, and almost of a scientific nature. An experiment in the form of constructing something to fall apart, or rather being destroyed. Alongside an attempt to predict how it will all fall apart: a hypothesis in the form of a drawing.
Though, this is not only for my personal feelings of relief through destruction but also to capture what is usually a gradual and continuous descent into a state of destruction. Condensing that into a single, intentional instance of destruction. The habitually sat-on spot on the left side of the sofa would slowly collapse inward until the cushion had entirely lost its shape. A sofa made almost entirely of paper would not allow that, it will likely break on first impact. But it is won’t last, it is made to fall apart.
Each item, each step, acts as a piece of data that contributes to a question. However, unlike an experiment of the scientific kind, this artistic experiment poses an ever-evolving set of open-ended questions. It is an ongoing process of research and experimentation examining the vague and vast concept of destruction, in my world and the rest of the world as well.