Beatriz Gerenstein, The Couple, 2016. Fine woods combination. Installation view at Palazzo Mora, 2016.

A Dialogue of Structure
The chairs presented by Beatriz Gerenstein at the exhibition Time-Space-Existence, during the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale 2016, are motivated by the concept of “art-based design” that combines the functional with the aesthetic. With a successful professional career as a sculptor of imaginative and abstract interpretations of the figurative, Gerenstein continues to explore the use of sinuous curves and natural forms to establish spatial constructs and interactions that move beyond a humanly-defined shape into that of furniture design.
Now she defines a new series of works to introduce romantic versions of chairs and the endless, ludic possibilities present in all of their many structural interplays. A chair is a piece of furniture used to seat a person and is as variable as its use dictates. A chair as a work of art provides a creative version of the functional that is suited for use and installation that moves beyond its intended purpose as an object into the realm of architectural and artistic design.
The essence of Gerenstein’s sculptures exists in a temporal world view that features the human being journeying through time and space as they encounter the forces of the universe and their many distractions, including human and spiritual relationships. She says that she intends her artistic practice “to represent the constant journey of the human being through the struggle to seek happiness,” and with this philosophical approach to her creativity, all of her work explores the essence of humanity. She uses circular forms, couples, tubes, and knots that play with spatial and aesthetic decisions now innovatively adapted to the form of a chair.
These two chairs are based on her sculpture, “Couple,” and reconsidered as a piece of furniture that requires interaction and participation of the viewer, just as being a couple requires the same level of engagement and positive and negative spaces (physical and emotional).
The appreciation of her sculpture depends upon the viewer’s ability to respond to form in three dimensions, a task often more difficult than responding to only two dimensions, such as with painting. Forms in their full spatial completeness are the dominant factor for understanding their purpose, as well as psychological content. Each work begins with the idea of personality or human relationships, and it is those concepts that control the design and formal qualities engaged in its production. The transition from abstract figuration into an object, such as a chair, demands the same attention to formal qualities as an independent object. The works of Beatriz Gerenstein, biomorphic and organic at their core, represent a true expression of humanity.