IN ALONE TOGETHERNESS

The Perfect Bench

Sterling Ruby, Inscribed Bench , 2007

“I often lay on a bench looking up into the trees, past the trunks and up into the branches. It is particularly fine at night with the stars above the trees.” (Georgia O’Keeffe). The difference between a bench and a chair is that of social and environmental inclusion vs. partitioning and self-isolation. The bench is an object that is forever inviting the other.

From left: John Pawson, Borge Morgensen, Rei Kawakubo, Massimo Vignelli, Donald Judd, Munich Beerhaus, Scandinavian Designs, Hedi Slimane, Charlotte Perriand, Irving Harper, Jorge Zalszupin, T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, Alvaar Alto, Jasper Morrison, Jens Risom, Ilmari Tapiovaara, Harry Bertoia, Hans Wegner, Rick Owens, Zanine Caldas, Knud Friis, George Nelson, Frank Lloyd Wright, Knoll International, Jean Prouvé

Jenny Holzer ‘Bank’, Münster, 1987

Bench from Twin Peaks, Washington, 2017