Gary Kulak
Powdered Coated Steel
8′ x 20″ x 30″
Creating presence through absence using a chair to represent the “human spirit” is the center of a 40-year life investigation. Embracing cultural differences, socio-economic constructs, and psychological perspectives through use of the common historical object, the chair, gives the viewer a frame of reference, an identity, and a basis for communication. Construction materials of the work are primarily welded steel using industrial processes. The goal of this work is to create bridges, to signify relationships between individual and community, private and public, cultural and natural, and to use the metaphor of figure, the chair, to exemplify the human spirit.
Living in a world changing at an ever increasing rate of speed allows for greater clarity. World event images in real time are uncensored and raw. This collected data gets organized into new thoughts, forms, and ideas. The impressions of these images, not the actual representations, are the source of ideas. This work’s representation of a chair is a line drawing in space. What one sees is as important as what one does not see.
Allowing the observer to complete the question of meaning on their own, creates an active approach to participation. Intellectual participation occurs as a direct result of the observation. This reconnects to the chair’s meaning being specific to each individual’s experiences and history, leading them to embrace their own cultural differences and socio-economic constructs.
Visit Gary Kulak’s website to see his other works: www.garykulak.com.