Artist Shows Deep-Seated Interest in Chairs

There are plenty of chairs in artist Clive Camillo Coogan’s studio--at least 15 are crammed into his tiny living/work space--but it’s not always easy to find a place to sit. Coogan’s chairs are, well, different. Several hang suspended from the ceiling; one seat is bristling with spikes; another seemingly ordinary kitchen chair is outfitted with the kind of gear one normally associates with an electric chair, while a few lie at awkward angles, either partially dismantled or sawed completely in half.

Sometimes, Coogan graciously provides a chair that manages to remain intact for the occasional visitor, but more often the CalArts senior likes to throw guests--especially visiting professors--off-guard by letting each person choose his or her own seat among Coogan’s eccentric collection.

“I can tell a little bit about a person’s character by watching where they choose to sit,” Coogan says.

There was a chair in Coogan’s first show at CalArts; it was his first “found” chair. Low on money, Coogan stumbled upon the discarded chair and decided to take it back to his campus studio. Instead of sitting on it, he split it in half and stuck the pieces on the wall as decoration. It ended up in his debut show about printmaking almost by chance.

Torture Chairs

But the chairs in Coogan’s second show were no accident. He fashioned a series of six “torture chairs” that were placed in “confessional” booths.

“I was always ridiculed for being too slick,” Coogan says. (He was rejected by CalArts at first because, he says, “my portfolio was too organized and they thought I should be in design.”) “This show dealt with the torture of design.”

Coogan’s final pre-graduation show is a major chair extravaganza--the culmination of Coogan’s college chair career. Coogan collaborated with several CalArts theater, dance and film students to create a multimedia installation entitled “Six Chairs/Six Rooms.”

Coogan began writing his idea for the show two years ago and in November got a group of actors to come to his studio each week for chair rap sessions. Each actor chose a favorite chair and then discussed with Coogan their reasons for choosing their chairs.

Sharing Process

“What I wanted most,” Coogan says, “was to share the process that I go through in my work with other people. Actors are used to learning lines but these six actors came with me though the process. We talked about where each chair came from and how it fit in their lives. The environment I made was created out of what they told me about their chairs.”

Coogan took copious notes on each session and then documented each chair by placing pieces of them in clear plastic bags. “I like the idea of taking a cheap chair and documenting it like a museum would,” he says. (Bags, foam rubber and chair stuffing--what Coogan calls “chair guts”--are neatly tacked on the walls of his studio.)

Confined to ‘Room’

But what might seem like quiet intellectual ponderings are actually quite explosive and emotional on stage. Each actor is confined for much of the performance to his or her own “room,” forcing the audience members to decide for themselves where to look. Various dances, film clips (the troupe took the chairs on various field trips), slides and experimental music are interspersed with the actor’s monologues. It’s Coogan’s own brand of ordered chaos.

“You aren’t just going to hear some guy screaming his head off,” Coogan says.

Multimedia performances of Clive Camillo Coogan’s “Six Chairs/Six Rooms” take place Thursday and next Friday at 10 p.m. in the Main Gallery at California Institute of the Arts, 24700 Mc Bean Parkway, Valencia. The installation may be viewed Sunday through next Saturday and random performances will occur throughout the week.