Programming

The installation is composed of two generic spaces: a waiting room and an office. These spaces are occupied by institutional furniture. The chairs in the waiting room collapse and the viewer can reconstruct the room by pulling on one of the many handles provided. The office, adjacent to the waiting room, is furnished with two work tables that have lost their original function, but have acquired new ones.

The furniture has the function of accommodating the human body and, therefore, mirrors its shapes and proportions, making the working day easier and more efficient. For Waiting Rooms and Offices, Adrienne Spier salvaged furniture that Concordia University had discarded: their style no longer met current standards and was now a handicap. To accentuate their handicap, the artist cut them into pieces and reassembled them with a system of pulleys, hinges and cables, elements that are usually intended to increase efficiency. This new furniture gains in value what it loses in satisfying its original function. The gallery visitor can choose to change the form of the furniture, allowing him to reflect on the mundane with a puppeteer's perspective.

The individual has daily intimate contact with the work furniture. He trusts the chairs to support his weight and can even caress the surface of the work table, the piece of furniture where debates take place and decisions are made. Whether for the day-to-day worker or the client of an institution, institutional aesthetics and design reflect and define, in part, the social order, collective identity and power relations.

Adrienne Spier's work has been the subject of solo and group exhibitions in Toronto, Guelph and Montreal. Her most recent installation Distribution Services was presented in April 2003 at Optica Gallery in Montreal. She is currently living in Montreal where she is completing her MFA at Concordia University.