John Cederquist

John Cederquist uses furniture forms, such as chests, desks, tables, benches, and chairs, as points of departure to explore imagery. A John Townsend high chest from Newport, Rhode Island, of about 1760 in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, inspired the piece, although Ghost Boy is more the semblance of a high chest than an actual chest. Using visual tricks and perspective to create the illusion of furniture, Cederquist combines an august Colonial American high chest with cheap shipping crates. Like a cubist master, the artist fractures and reassembles his high chest as if to understand its components.