Jordan Wason (J.R.) is an artist from New Jersey, living in New York, who animates objects, co-hosts happenings where art is destroyed, and plays music. He constantly shuffles himself between the three. All his creations journal his attempts at making meaning through absurdity, the rawness of improvisation, and the discovery of narrative within spaces and things.
Chairs are turned into musical instruments in this waiting room for the Bureau of Illumination.
Jordan Wason (Brooklyn, NYC) | October 2021
Installation of musical chairs, fabric, rocking horses, exercise bike, lamps, magazines, speakers, organ, piezo pickups, CRT T.V., laser etched signage; Happening series; Video ad series; Digital music recordings
The Waiting Room - 15ft x 12ft installation The Waiting Room Auditions - 9 video ad series, approx. 11min total runtime Musical Chairs - 6.5in x 4.5in laser engraved wood panel Rocking Horse - 6.7 x 4.5 laser engraved wood panel Mirror 1 (Musical Chairs) - _ x _ laser engraved mirror Mirror 2 (Rocking Horse) - _ x _ laser engraved mirror Mirror 3 (Cowboy Kid Chair) - _ x _ laser engraved mirror Mirror 4 (Twin Chairs) - _ x _ laser engraved mirror
Seeing that there was a Bureau of Illumination at Elsewhere, Jordan decided that there must also be a waiting room, as there is always waiting involved in any bureaucratic process. In a waiting room there is typically music, seating, and frustration. In this waiting room there are un-upholstered musical chairs, rolls of fabric, and instruments. The room and the objects themselves are put into a state of waiting for completion. Visitors are provided with the materials to work and create while waiting, in a process that both alleviates their frustration and saves the bureau a lot of money. Throughout the process Jordan wrote typewritten letters to the Bureau next door, which record the evolution of the room and its excavation-
