Portrait: Shy Chair (Interactive Kinetic Sculpture, 2026)

Shy Chair is an interactive kinetic sculpture that personifies an old wooden chair as a shy figure. An elderly man’s face sits atop the chair’s backrest. It merges human presence with furniture, transforming the chair into a body that cannot move.

At the core of the work lies a paradox. A chair is an object designed to support and serve. It exists for others. Yet this figure is shy. As a viewer approaches, Shy Chair’s heartbeat begins to pulse. The closer the viewer comes, the faster the heartbeat rises, anxious and exposed. When the viewer steps outside its boundary, the rhythm gradually slows and eventually falls silent.

Unlike Shy Guy, the chair cannot turn away. It is fixed in place and must face whatever comes toward it. The role of the chair demands availability, endurance, and support. Its nature, however, recoils from attention. This tension creates a quiet conflict. Shy Chair struggles to fulfill the function assigned to it while internally resisting the very presence it is meant to accommodate.

Through this merging of personification and dehumanization, the work reflects how individuals are often reduced to function within social and cultural systems. The human becomes furniture, a structure meant to carry weight without complaint. Shy Chair asks what happens when a being made to serve is also allowed to feel fear, hesitation, and vulnerability.