Inanimate Autopsy

2006

altered recliner, wood, stainless steel, and video projection

H 66” x L 102” x D 30”

Inanimate Autopsy as installed in Janus, curated by Sarah Tanguy, at Maryland Art Place in 2006.

The research required for Inanimate Autopsy involved working with a pathophysiologist and performing a post-mortem examination on human cadavers to better understand the process. The procedure was then applied to a La-Z-Boy reclining chair in an act that oscillates between humorous and disturbing imagery. Video documentation accompanies the artifact when the piece is displayed. Ferguson often uses humor and absurdism in his creative practice to explore the intersection between empirical science and philosophical dread. Inanimate Autopsy was the first of his projects that embodied the idea through the documentation of process, not the resulting sculptural object alone.