Gregory Beson
Name of Work: Source Material
GB102 Rib Chair / 14.25"w x 19.25"d x 28"hEastern white pine, oil finish
GB103 Plane Chair / 19"w x 22.5"d x 24.75"h
Bronze plate; mill finish, clear lacquer, unfinished seat
GB104 Totem Chair / 16"w x 28.5"d x 40"h
Silver travertine; solid slab, unfilled, stone sealer
About the Work:
The GB102 Rib Chair, GB103 Plane Chair, and GB104 Totem Chair are three forms envisioned for realization in specific materials. As you see each chair here, your eyes look upon a representation. The representation, in turn, functions as a prompt: Can the dream compel you to commission the reality? Are the virtual conceptions vivid enough, rendering the real matter complete (‘skins’ of the photographs of the matter, a somehow satisfying simulacrum)? Or might the forms only be truly felt upon being made tangible? I argue that both, at once, can be wholly true. I do wonder, however, what may be lost and what may be gained in all of this newly necessary questioning. So follows my inquiry and investigation.
About the Studio:
In our time – in this epoch – beauty (a jejune kind) seems certainly more determined by the surface of things rather than their depth, structure, and holistic vantage points upon them. Gregory Beson rejects this as a narrow way of seeing, imploring us all to look “beyond.” His practice asks: How can something be beautiful if it has been created by a system of injustice which prioritizes market value over the earth (resources) and people (craft, time and skill)? If an object will not break down for 1,000 years (far beyond the scope of this time, this epoch) is something so permanent really worth creating? Gregory’s work is created through a vantage point conscientious of the fact that we must each, as designers and consumers, contemplate these questions, and must answer them for ourselves.
In our time – in this epoch – beauty (a jejune kind) seems certainly more determined by the surface of things rather than their depth, structure, and holistic vantage points upon them. Gregory Beson rejects this as a narrow way of seeing, imploring us all to look “beyond.” His practice asks: How can something be beautiful if it has been created by a system of injustice which prioritizes market value over the earth (resources) and people (craft, time and skill)? If an object will not break down for 1,000 years (far beyond the scope of this time, this epoch) is something so permanent really worth creating? Gregory’s work is created through a vantage point conscientious of the fact that we must each, as designers and consumers, contemplate these questions, and must answer them for ourselves.