Wirework Weekend Part 3 Featuring Fabulous Fabrics and Confusing Chairs

posted: Sunday, 03 April 2011

Today is the last day of the wirework projects class and just enough time to cram in some more experimenting and inflict it on my students.

Before we know it the class is over and we all have to wend our ways homeward.

Fortunately I get to make a detour and take a visit to Pallant House Gallery in Chichester for an exhibition on Robin and Lucienne Day.

I have long been a fan of their work, and am a big fan of this style in general, so I was looking forward to feasting my eyes on the exhibition and wasn't disappointed.

It's a lovely gallery with many fine things to see and I enjoyed my walk around.

I have visited before but had forgotten about their weird idiosyncrasy of having lots of chairs in the rooms but putting pine-cones on them.

Presumably this is to stop you sitting on the chairs? Having lots of chairs but not allowing people to sit on them seems to be a strange sort of torture. A tired person's Room 101.

I both love and hate the idea.

I understand if the chairs are valuable not wanting them to be sat on. But with no information about the chairs and no signs saying not to sit on them it seems to be a really passive-aggressive way of doing it.

Or is it a nice way? The pine-cones look nicer than signs and don't spoil the look of the chairs. If they were behind ropes or put on stands you may not be able to see them so well so this way deals with that.

It just seems odd.

If I went to someone's house and, to stop me sitting on a chair, they put a pine-cone down I would think "Either let me sit down or come out with it and tell me you don't want me sitting down. Don't do it in such an odd way".

But then I'm not anti-odd.

So, is it odd and treating people like untrustworty adults? Or are we untrustworthy adults and this is a gentle, decorative and amusing way of dealing with us?