The Bench Shall Dissolve

2022


FALL 2022, in collaboration with Simmone Stearn and Mara Jovanovic
[A Guide to Rest as Resistance]


“In designating itself as uniquely sittable, the bench invariably dubs its surroundings unsittable, confining the domain of sanctioned public rest firmly to itself. And the capacity of this domain is frugal; its proportions cling to and constrain the body into a given posture, its width forbids sprawl, its length forgets our friends. What we are left with is a scattered archipelago of discrete, tightly dimensioned surgical cuts into the productive fabric of the city. A grudging concession in the place of an exuberant given.”

This collection of booklets investigates the bench as an apparatus for policing public and communal rest, offers an instructional guide to rehearse and perform restful acts in restless places, and speculates on a future where the bench dissolves far beyond its bounds, into every corner of the urban fabric - the sills, curbs, stairs, roads.



Mark