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Inhale, Exhale

A work made of stainless steel and glass, 1/4 limited edition.
© 2010 Sam Buxton.

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  • A work made of stainless steel and glass, 1/4 limited edition.

Date:

2010

Artist:

Sam Buxton
English, born 1972

About this artwork

London-based Sam Buxton is interested in exploring the possibilities of new technologies and materials in the service of works that reinterpret everyday objects and environments, emphasizing their component parts for renewed scrutiny. For the past ten years, Buxton has created an array of miniature environments and landscapes made from acid-etched or chemically milled steel that depict familiar environments drawn from everyday life: health-club gyms, airport waiting lounges, public plazas, outdoor cafés, and open-plan office spaces. Buxton is interest in exploring the phenomenological aspects of architecture and design and purposefully depicts the types of homogeneous environments that define our quotidian existence as a way to create work that is accessible to a broad audience and will therefore prompt investigation. For Buxton, the city is a networked data-scape in which we plug in and out depending on the activities we are assuming at any one time. The most coherent manifestation of his ideas is demonstrated in a series of recent works that play out at the scale of furniture or product design. Inhale, Exhale (2010) features a myriad of staircases grouped together in a block that is approximately 5 feet high and three-and-a-half feet in width. This piece is unsettling in its failure to provide the sense of escape that one expects from such stairs. Like much of Buxton’s work, the piece is meant to be read metaphorically as a multilayered narrative relating to daily life. Buxton has offered this explanation of Inhale, Exhale: “Every stair begins at the base and emerges onto the open surface, the entirety is therefore interconnected. The image of the staircase relates predominantly to the mind, in this case a state of mind, but it also references data, processing, and repetition. I wanted to juxtapose familiarity and presumed purpose with a claustrophobic density, a structure that can only be briefly escaped, that ultimately only leads to an inevitable re-immersion.” By creating a strong vocabulary of forms that are both familiar and unfamiliar, Buxton prompts viewers to contemplate their own relationships with the spaces and objects.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Architecture and Design

Artist

Sam Buxton

Title

Inhale, Exhale

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

2010

Medium

Stainless steel and glass, 1/4 limited edition

Dimensions

153 × 42 × 42 cm (60 1/4 × 16 9/16 × 16 9/16 in.)

Credit Line

Funds provided by the Architecture & Design Society

Reference Number

2010.415

Copyright

© 2010 Sam Buxton.

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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