Committed by Derek Chalfant

                         The conceptual intent for this sculpture was to fabricate a form that resembles a tall rocking chair as well as a high chair.  The sculpture is universal in that many people worldwide have seen and use some type of chair for one purpose or another.  A chair (seat) is what we use to accommodate our bodies on while performing numerous tasks.  The chair is used when we eat, work on the computer, for office work and while waiting.  The chair is a public and private object that can be very plan or quite decorative.

                        From Chalfant:  “many of the sculptural forms I create, reminiscent of architecture and objects of suggested utility, security and protection are used as metaphors for our psychological behavior, and for the phenomenology of the body.  Domestic furnishing structures like chairs allow me to explore specific polar states that are relevant to the structure and also to the personal psyche, such as large/small, inside/outside, private/public, adult/child, beginning/end, birth/death.  Paradox is probably the most poignant in my work.  Part of the narrative in my pieces has to do with the human condition and in particular today’s youth.”

            Born in Danville, Indiana, Chalfant earned his MFA from the University of Notre Dame after having received his BFA from Herron School of Art – Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis.  Since 2003, he has been an instructor of Art and Art History at Elmira College in Elmira, NY.

www.derekchalfantstudios.com