Consuming Identity Chair
Complex Identity
Fading Identity
Material Identity
Consuming Identity Chair
Consuming Identity mounts on the wall. Though it looks like a chair, it is not for sitting. It functions more as an object floating between the iconic identity of a Charles Rennie MacKintosh chair and the craftsmanship of a Shaker chair. The front legs are longer and the seat is a forced perspective less than 10" depth. The chair explores how identity is created by what we buy and why we by it in our consumer society.
The sequence of rungs along the back of the chair varies in dimension and spacing mimicking the bar code patterns that permeate all consumer packaging.
The marketing of consumer products works to create a sense of identity with the consumer. “According to advertising guru James Twitchell every symbol, from Alka Seltzer’s Speedy to the Energizer Bunny plants powerful notions of who we are.” [1] Consumers are enticed to buy products based on branding, a learned response to identify with a particular product. By choosing a particular brand of coffee, for example, you’re indicating your good taste or your social status.
[1] Richard and Joyce Wolkomir, Smithsonian Magazine, page 103.
Symbolic of our unconscious consumption of identity, bar codes appear on nearly all packages, but are rarely noticed by consumers. The mysterious encrypted sequence of lines and spaces now identifies every consumer product, every express package, and every item that we buy.
Which consumer product do you identify with most and what does that say about your identity?
In this chair I explore how we are constantly bombarded by images and advertising. So much of what we buy displays a brand name. T-shirts, underwear, outerwear, hats, pajamas, shoes.... almost everything we buy bears a brand name logo, converting individuals into walking billboards.
Pre-printed steel from recycled tin containers, fabric seat; aluminum rivets, steel screws.
Dimensions: 51" H x 19.5" W x 10" D
Available for purchase or exhibition.
Copyright 2001 Harriete Estel Berman
Consuming Identity is included in the book 500 Chairs.
CLICK ON THE BOOK IMAGE to purchase this book from Amazon.com.
Material Identity
Material Identity is a chair inspired by the styling principle of Charles Lock Eastlake. His book Hints on Household Taste, was a best seller in England and America in the years following its publishing in 1868. Ironically, Eastlake's treatise expounds on commentary equally relevant today. He said that public taste is corrupt - fashion rules, and few are shocked by sham and pretension. Cheap and easy method of workmanship in an endeavor to produce a show of finish with the least possible labor, as well as an unhealthy spirit of competition in regard to price, has continued to cause the value of our ordinary mechanic's work to deteriorate. The parallels today 100 years later are resounding.
Chair and seat constructed from pre-printed steel from recycled tin containers; aluminum, sterling silver and 10k gold rivets; stainless steel screws. Scroll below for more images and Artist Statement.
Dimensions: 38.25"H x 17.25" W x 14" D
Available for purchase or exhibition.
Close-up of Material Identity Chair depicting branding of recycled tin.
Look closely to see my hallmark, Bermaid, stamped into the back of the chair. Bermaid is a play on words. First, my last name - Berman - is not a very good name for an avowed feminist— it having “man” embedded in its ending. I replace “man” with “maid” to indicate to viewers that the artist is a woman and to suggest that the work is "made" by hand.
Material Identity is included in the books 500 Chairs and Altered Art: Techniques for Creating Altered Books, Boxes, Cards & More.
Copyright 2002 Harriete Estel Berman
Fading Identity
Fading Identity is a piece that surveys advertisements aimed at women that portray women as perfect and permanently beautiful while simultaneously ascribing undesirability to physical features that develop with age. It is no wonder that so many women attempt to conceal their appearance through cosmetics and cosmetic procedures when subliminal messaging informs them that their value decreases with age.
Recycled tin cans, 10k gold rivets, aluminum rivets, stainless steel screws, plastic reinforcement for button.
Dimensions: 19" H x 14.5" W of seat x 15" D
Available for purchase or exhibition
The vanity seat is covered with images of women from advertising. The idealized and artificial standards of beauty portray women as "delicious and refreshing."
Recycled Tin Advertising contains messages such as:
“Botox my wrinkles”
“Airbrush my imperfections”
“Reduce the appearance of fine lines”
“Soft, soft focus perfect lighting am I visibly firm”
These advertisements insidiously convey messages that attribute undesirability with certain physical features, thus setting forth beauty standards and ideas about what constitutes desirable physical features.
Underneath the vanity seat it says: "Reverse the signs of aging" with a Selector Reversing Switch.”
Fading Identity is included in the book Manufractured: The Conspicuous Transformation of Everyday Objects by Mara Holt Skov and Steven Skov Holt. An entire chapter of the book features my work. CLICK ON BOOK below to see more information about this fabulous book.
RELATED ARTWORK:
Identity Complex vanity seat 2001 (above)
Identity Complex Mirror
Vanity Seat Fading Identity also included in the online Exhibition titled: "Me, Myself and I: Reflection, Vanity and Objects of Beautification" on Crafthaus.
© Harriete Estel Berman, 2021
