Benjamin Kjellman-Chapin
Artist Statement:
Storytelling is the driving force of my work, and material and process are its twin narrators. Central to my process is that the material itself, steel primarily but also other metals, has a say in its formation. I see my work as a collaboration with the material, the narrative emerging from our joint effort. Metal is a powerful orator, if one chooses to listen.
Name of artwork:
MORF (chair revelation)
Thoughts about the artwork:
MORF is about revelation, but also about questioning our interpretation of and interaction with things. Is a chair just a chair? Is a table merely a table? Did that coatrack just greet me? As humans we tend to anthropomorphize everything around us, imposing our characteristics on inanimate objects. As we cast our pareidolic gaze about, objects begin to slide down a Heideggerian path. My work engages actively with that very thingness of things—a chair reveals itself to have human form, no longer merely an object on which to sit, but an agent of comfort and embrace, a memory, a story waiting to be told.
Describe process: who, what, why, when, how, and with what help
Metal has seemingly limitless potential for transformation and because of that, the possibilities for imbuing the material with meaning is equally endless. Metal speaks to me, collaborates with me, helps me in telling its story.
Why do I do it? Because there is so much to be said—about how we interact with things, how we engage with one another, with ourselves, and sometimes the most meaningful conversations are those we have when we see something in an object that we might otherwise overlook.
About the artist:
Benjamin works as an artist blacksmith and metal designer. He runs KjellmanChapin Blacksmiths with his partner in Nes Verk, Norway where they focus on interior, sculptural, and architectural ironwork.
Benjamin holds a Svennebrev, Norway’s journeyman’s certificate in blacksmithing, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture from The Atlanta College of Art in Atlanta, Georgia.