The Great Incorporeal Couch

Describing her works as a study of 'contortion, collapsibility and modes of idea production', Ana produces a series of ideas that are presented in catalogues and realized in exhibitions. Employing an 'open-ended methodology informed by seemingly counterintuitive methods -the juxtaposition of art history and marketing or advertising and Zen or yoga and product design or urban planning and toy/kindergarten design, the ideological and aesthetic tensions and the conflicts created in these collisions offer in turn new sources of ideas and conceptual inspiration'.

Expanding the range of her unexpected and inspired production line, Ana creates The Great Incorporeal Couch, a reflection upon the gallery and museum setting and the attendant activity of analysis and reflection. Congruent with the conjunction of unpredictable ideas, the work combines the sensuality of relaxation with meditative analysis. Taking on the problem of the white cube gallery and the intrusion of the gallery seat that neither provides comfort nor harmonises with its surroundings, the work is functional disappearance into the gallery floor, mimicking and camouflaged, yet made for lounging - an activity usually not encouraged while viewing artworks. The demands of looking at art can now be experienced in comfort.

Recalling the essential design furniture and the chairs portrayed in art and as object, Ana's formulation of the work that can be experienced in multiple ways as its audiences engage with the politics of power within the gallery. The authority of the viewer is renewed, and the interaction of the viewer and viewed is reconciled and invigorated. The integration of herself as artist, with that of the audience creates a conversational nexus, where the experience of the work and the work envelope one another, contorting artist and audience upon each other. Printed with the brand used for her semi-fictional production company, Ananatural Productions, The Great Incorporeal Couch is also product, marketable and branded, mobile landscape and consumable ocular vehicle.

June Yap