Cornrow Chair

Cornrow Chair started with an unexpected encounter of a found object: an awkwardly proportioned chair with curvaceous Rococo arms and plain standard legs. To Clark, the chair signified the uncomfortable history of race relations within the United States, and our nation’s deeply entrenched practice of devaluing labor-often rendered invisible-that nonetheless props up the economy and the wealthiest members of white society. To underscore the metaphorical links between this unusual object and seen/unseen members of American society, Clark recovered the chair with a showy velvet and striped ticking–a durable industrial textile often used as an upholstery underlining or mattress cover. Clark then embroidered the back of the chair with stitched cornrows that extend beneath the chair and cascade in a mass of braids which appear to support the chair itself.