An Installation by Anne Bray & Molly Cleator
[Easy Chair Electric Chair is a multimedia installation. The wheelchairs are constantly in motion, propelled by motors and sensors. The text is excerpted from a transcript of an ongoing dialogue, performed by the artists, played through video monitors on the wheelchairs.]
Molly circulates smoothly as an easy chair with lush brocade fabric and topped with a chrome portrait frame. She sees mass media as a powerful potentially communicative forum.
Anne is a motorized wheelchair, customized with seat belts, black accessories and metal vise grips, moving in aggressive zigzag patterns. She insists that mass media bars communication and inhibits self knowledge.
M: It seems that human beings feel the need to commit to some sort of view or position and by committing to it, they eliminate all the other possibilities. Do you ever feel that by not watching TV that you are cutting yourself off from the rest of the world that watches TV?
A: I know that I am cutting myself off. I don't like to admit it but I know that's true. It shows how alienated I am and unwilling to get over this problem. I wish it were a dialogue...
M: Right.
A: ...and it's a monologue.
M: Right.