Hull – Ferens Art Gallery (Straitjacket Chairs by Nina Saunders)

This artwork is actually untitled, I’ve given it a very unoriginal title for sake of completeness… In essence, this is two chairs joined together with a straitjacket. OK, this joins my list of artworks I don’t understand, so I’m reliant on the gallery’s description once again. And they say:

“In the content of much of Saunder’s work their anthropomorphic nature hints at family relationships; dark family secrets, sibling rivalries and even incestuous affinities”.

I probably wouldn’t have guessed that on my own, I’d thought that it was something like office workers being tied together within the confines of a corporate environment. Although, what I think is rarely what the artist thinks. Anyway, the artwork is by the Danish artist Nina Saunders and she had an exhibition at this gallery all the way back in 1995, which is also when this piece was purchased by the Ferens.