Yasuko Toyoshima Web Site | WORKS / Surface

Surface (2001-)

Floor protector felt pads are affixed to the bottom of furniture legs to protect the floor from damage such as scratches. Keeping the function of these pads, I stick them directly on the floor surface on the exact spots where the chair legs would sit. Set in place on top of the felt pads, the chairs’ appearance is not unusual and the room looks ordinary but the simple transposition of where the protector pads are attached creates an opposite functional setting. Affixed to the floor, the pads’ immobility renders them as ‘anchors’ of the space. They suggest exactly where the chair legs should be placed. Any positional shifting beyond the ‘default’ points intended in the artwork renders the protective function of the pads ineffective. Even the slightest shifting exposes the altered balance, rendered tenuous with a simple act, within the system of the space. Surface changes the operative function of an ordinary object and results in a correlative volatility or a shifting coefficient between default and artificial positions.