Un Village sans frontières
Chen Zhen
Chinese, 1955–2000
2000
Chen Zhen transforms a wooden chair and candles into a compact painted miniature “village,” using ordinary household materials to suggest shelter, migration, and mutual care.
A red-legged chair supports a dense, toy-like mass of green, stick-and-roof forms—the hand-built texture and precarious stacking make the work feel both intimate and architecturally alive against the white wall.
By turning domestic furniture into communal architecture, Chen broadened contemporary sculpture’s language to address globalization, diaspora, and the fragile networks that sustain displaced communities.
Medium
Wood chair and candles
Dimensions
24 13/16 x 15 3/8 x 9 13/16" (63 x 39 x 25 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Katherine Farley and Jerry Speyer
Accession
491.2015.2
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
