Sitting on a chair is totally unsuited to the human physiognomy. The chair traps the sitter, making him vegetative, slowing down bodily processes and functions. It restricts the skeletal muscles and the lungs. The leg muscles are relieved in favour of the buttock muscles, which becomes chronically tense, while the back muscles are weakened, skewing the natural dynamics of the body. The pelvis ceases to exert stability on the hip joints, the spinal cord loses its elasticity, and the head sits badly, balanced on slouched shoulders. To adopt such an unhealthy posture seems paradoxcial, and yet it has become the signature of Western civilisation, a permanent and indispensable part of the daily life.
By Margit Emesz, Take a Seat - Published for the exhibition Next Time I’m Here, I’ll Be There by Hans Schabus at The Curve, Barbican Art Gallery (London) between 1st March 2008 to 1st June 2008.
