The Familiar Table
Wood, Steel, Wood Stain, Magnets
The Familiar Table
Families have come together around “tables” to break bread for thousands of years. This seemingly ordinary utilitarian object comes in countless forms, from the most rudimentary and ethereal of momentarily contained space to the highest level of concept- craftsmanship and expense. The dining table is an object, both symbolic and functional. A stage where we play out the same human stories since the beginning of time. A place rife with symbolism, charged with emotions, memories and projections. We take our seats, and the play begins. much of it is already known, a prescribed set of behaviors and ceremonies, motions and routines, etiquette and unspoken familiar agreements. However, underneath all that there is pure energy. This force, pushing and pulling; an interesting alchemy at play. Relational dynamics have always interested me, people like chemicals when seated next to each other and in different combinations create different reactions. The familiar relations table is a nod to the complexities that inherently exist in all communal structures. Relationships are complex, people have unconscious and conscious effects on themselves and each other. We may believe we are autonomous beings, but families remind us that we are all indisputably interconnected. Orbiting around each other in life we can not ignore the push and pull we have upon each other and no where is this energy more present then while seated around the table.