The Compound Presents: Pillow Cabinet
The collaboration with another artist is the most recent addition to Amen’s career. His partnership with painter John Palmer can be seen in the “Bayou Catfish” tray. Other works, described by the artist as “compound sculpture” are the current focus of the two artists. These works include painted chairs, beds and most recently the cabinet.
Amen and Palmer are producing unique pieces of furniture that explore the interaction between form, texture and painted abstraction with function. The pillow-like painted geometric forms are housed in defined spaces in the cabinet. Visually they depict a single large painting or mosaic of smaller individual colored shapes. They can be removed and used as pillows or returned to the cabinet showing the reverse sides, which are painted like line drawings.
The compounded functional pieces offer us an opportunity to entertain new definitions of where art should or should not exist in our surroundings and how interactive we can be with it. This is both unique and exciting. The collaborative work by the two artists is an artistic statement of what strong creative energies can accomplish and encourage as a good exchange.
