“The Murder Chairs tells seven stories about violence and memory. Experimental film from the year 2010.” by Nalle Mielonen. Again with using chairs in narratives as representatives of people.
Please someone help me figure out what this phenomenon is about!
Chairs as people – There is no sense in this but artists from Ai Weiwei to Nalle Mielonen to Jan Hakon Erichsen work in the same aesthetic framework. I would accept this more easily if this where a society under heavy censorship and portraying humans in narratives would not be acceptable or the subjects of these works would be such that using “real” actors would not be possible.
All of these artist are telling stories which would appear naive if they would have actors in them. Chairs representing humans give a sense for horror for these films. It’s possibly a logistical and practical reason why chairs are used – And not shoes, clothing or kitchen appliances. A director can easily find different kinds of chairs and transporting them to the set is easily done. Chairs also have an uniform design.. You sit on them and their proportions are such that only humans can do this. Using a coffee mug would appear more ambiguous as such may be used for a variety of liquids and used by all sorts of animals. But chairs are for humans only.
An important observation is that chairs are unisex and hence serve narratives well.