One-Way Chair, left; Door Table, above

Michael Whitney of Brooklyn

I make a living building furniture for private homes and offices. I see how others live, and learn to understand how they wish to live. What’s most interesting to me is what they choose to discard. Worn doors, broken windowpanes and three-legged chairs are dragged to the corner or the dumpster because they no longer work in the traditional sense. I seek such abandoned objects to create new functional objects — lamps, clocks, and tables — as sculpture. My intent is not to change the quality of the material, or its original character, but to demonstrate the constant, dynamic existence of such common devices.

When I see a displaced object, I see a story, a history, and a future. I don’t try to mask or hide the scars of an object’s past life but instead I honor the experience each object brings along. I create new relationships between objects – and new purpose for them. Some are given a second life, literally. I animate pieces with batteries, light bulbs or mirrors. To some I just give legs and arms. They become subtle variations of their original.