Janine Antoni

to return, 2015

Polyurethane resin

37 x 17 x 17 inches (94 x 43.2 x 43.2 cm)

Sitting on top of a domestic stool is the unlikely embrace between the curve of a sacrum and a cupped hand. As the sacrum is the site of our evolutionary lost tail, the hand cradles the remains of this ancient sever. The heaviest bone in the body, the sacrum is the last bone to disintegrate. Many cultures believe it is the seed from which we are reborn.  

In this sculpture, all parts turn and return. Just as the inverted sacrum meets the up-turned palm, so too, does the turned wood meet the branch of its past. The tip of the coccyx sinks into the seat of the stool. The body and stool graft to one another taking their relationship to an extreme. The stool has been designed for the body, but over time, the stool has designed the body.