w/ 028 CS

type: object / image
function: chair
location: karuizawa, gumma
material: polystyrene foam, grayboard
dimension: w220 x d230 x h225(195)
date: 2025.6.14

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A project in which chairs were brought to and taken home from the ‘Summer Space’ in Tanikawa House (1974).

I don’t attach any deep meaning to the sloping floor. The only facts here are the numerical values of the slope and the height difference.
—kazuo shinohara, when crossing a bare space

I CAN take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged.
ーpeter brook, the empty space

Considering the 2 definitions of the space — the sloping, volcanic ash-covered ‘summer space’ and the ‘empty space’ where people pass by and gaze at it, as described in Shinohara’s explanation of his work — I felt that chairs would not fit well in the space.

So I decided to make a chair for Peter Brook’s book, ‘The Empty Space.’ The bottom surface slopes and the top surface has a niche for books. The slope of the sides is designed to fit the dimensions of an open book.

In this way, a pedestal for books, which can also be used for sitting, was introduced as a specific object, determined solely by the external dimensions of its surroundings.

As an experimental space, the ‘summer space’ was spacious, but as a living space it was overly theatrical. The single-pane glass fitted into the narrow slits in the foundation and pillars was delicate, and enclosed the indoor space while unreasonably confining nature.