Artist: Harco Rutgers
"Academy exhibition and graduation of my experimental post graduate year interior architecture at CHK Constantijn Huygens (art academy) in Kampen, 1997.
This year had an overall theme: nursing homes. I took the liberty to slightly bend the assignment; instead of designing solutions for the inhabitants of nursing homes, I designed furniture that needs care itself, because it has typical human illnesses and disabilities, both physical and mental.
I designed several pieces of furniture in which I translated my view on the main characteristics of a certain illness or disability. The ones I eventually produced are ‘Dementiestoel’ and ‘Dwarsleasietafel’. This furniture seems to have the ability to create some degree of awareness, because it forces the observer to take a fresh look at the implications of a specific illness or disability.
Dementiestoel (Alzheimer Chair) is a visual representation of Alzheimer, translated into a chair. The chair misses a piece of vital information to function correctly, in this case a leg. It tries to cope (and initially deny) this loss, by fabricating alternate structures. Although the chair might think that his problem is now no longer visible to the outside world (and therefore fixed), it is clear to all healthy chairs that the new structure does not resemble the missing leg.
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