Nina Saunders has been fashioning domestic objects into odd and subversive works of art that can take on various readings depending on the context. ‘Abstract Mass’ is an armchair made of concrete and stainless steel, which begs the question of displacement. In a diverse city like London, this question gains political, cultural and personal significance. De-contextualized and re-contextualized, the work questions the boundaries between public and private space, between domesticity and domestication, between responding to the city plan and creating a ‘situation’.
You are tempted to touch it, even sit on it, but upon closer inspection, you realize its surface is rough and uninviting. Is loneliness hard to bear? Does it make you feel small in a huge space? Abstract Mass is a disruptive work that, in its isolation, makes us re-think of the city and its people, of solace and loneliness, of the material that may seem rough but has enormous potential, just like ourselves.