“Dad, what is the definition of lazy?”
“Me” he said, while reclining in his chair, the game on tv.
A Lazy Love explores the relationship between labor and rest, love and loss.
In a consumer culture of constant production and work, inevitably comes the question, “What’s next?”
Honestly, I just want to sit. I want to rest.
After a long day’s work, I like to treat myself to a free 90-minute massage at Nebraska Furniture Mart, “America’s Largest Home Furnishings Store.” While vibrating in a massage chair for sale next to pregnant women and construction workers, single dads and 83-year-olds, I let the voices of couples shopping for La-Z-Boy recliners drift me back into the middle class. I call this Lazy Boy Poetry.
Oh my word this feels so nice. My back is in heaven. I don’t want to lose you. Sit in it with me.
As the dialogue of couples searching for the perfect chair washes over me, I contemplate my own love life from afar. In my relaxed position, I start to see each La-Z-Boy recliner as a literal lazy boy. Like a dating app, chair after chair is for sale, screaming try me, feel me, buy me. Swipe left, swipe right. What’s next?
What am I looking for? What makes a good chair? The most compatible partner? Do I have a type? Am I too comfortable? Is this the one?
PLAINS ART MUSEUM, FARGO, ND
Woven into the fabric of each La-Z-Boy recliner, I render the faces of past relationships. Through drawing, as a type of meditation and reflection, these delicate graphite drawings reveal an intimacy through time. The empty chair references the loss of what was, while simultaneously embodying a former lover and/or friend. The chair becomes a container for past conversations and connections. Similar to how memory fades, I intentionally leave each drawing “unfinished” to reflect upon an incomplete or lazy love.
Love is sad, at least at the end.
Graphite drawings, 11” x 14”
Leather Swivel Rocker Recliner in Amargo Slate
Rocker Recliner in Dove
Zaynah Leather Rocker Recliner in Saddle
Beige Arm Rocker Recliner
Rocker Recliner in Haley Ash
CEO Rocker Recliner in Mink
Lay Flat Rocker Recliner in Brown
Best Plusher Rocker Recliner in Mink
Brown Microfiber Rocker Recliner
Bancroft Charcoal Blue Leather Rocker Recliner
Oversized Big Man Rocking Recliner in Woodstock Sand
Power Rocker Recliner with Heat and Massage
Father, 2023, photograph printed on mirrored metal
During the pandemic lockdown, I used our government stipend to purchase my own massage chair to use from home. This chair became a temporary substitute for human touch. In the video, A Massage Chair Without a Body, the machine is programmed to vibrate, mechanically inhaling and exhaling unaware of its lack of a body to embrace. Koi fish swim in and out of the scene, revealing a feeling of longing for love and friendship, as the leather chair morphs into the skin of my grandmother’s chest searching for breath on her deathbed.
Excerpt from A Massage Chair Without A Body (Full Video 11:51 min)
Massage Chair Drawings, 2023, pastel, 11” x 14”
Left hand, Two Fingers, Two Thumbs, I sit in the chair and receive a massage. With my fingers dusted in pastel, in turn I massage the paper, letting the chair dictate the drawing.
My Lazy Boy is Pink, Silkscreen & spray paint, 20” x 30”
Through photography, drawing, text and video, A Lazy Love invites the viewer to sit in the space between transactional and relational love, while ultimately asking where does one find rest?
As St. Augustine famously said,
“Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
