Drop City Gallery, "Take a Seat" artist Ellen Ziegler

If you get the chance, go and see the "Take a Seat" exhibition at Drop City Gallery, it’s a wonderful show. The show offers a great mix of chairs ranging from the artistic to the more technical. Ellen Ziegler’s design piqued my interest not only because of its artistic merit (Cyanotype (light-sensitive emulsion) on fabric, mosquito netting, gouache on wet-media acetate) but because it also speaks to the insatiable nature of our consumer culture. Below is the artistic statement for her entry.

Ellen Ziegler at Drop City Gallery

A Chair for a Hungry Ghost

The Hungry Ghost of Asian mythology consumes endlessly, but can never be satisfied. It’s considered an act of compassion to visualize the Hungry Ghost being fed to satisfaction so it will no longer suffer from craving.

This chair invites the Ghost to be seated at your table.

The materials for this chair are recycled in two ways:

1. The sheets and chair are from a second-hand store.

2. I have an ongoing pact with another artist not to buy any new art materials till we use up old ones: all other chair materials are from my studio and were not purchased for this project. In addition, the acetate painting is cannibalized from another exhibit.

Ellen Ziegler is an artist, curator and graphic designer. A member of In Lieu Exhibit Space, she has been published, purchased and exhibited widely. Her work is available at LIMN Gallery in San Francisco and SAM Gallery in Seattle, as well as through In Lieu Exhibit Space.

Ziegler is a recipient of a Rome Fellowship from the Northwest Institute of Architecture and Urban Studies in Italy, is an Artist Trust Fellow and a GAP Grant recipient. Her work is in many public and private collections.

You can learn more about Ellen Ziegler at www.ellenziegler.com.

Learn more about Drop City Gallery at www.dropcitygallery.com