Anthony Horowitz collects automata – whether funny, profane, thoughtful or off-the-wall crazy
The writer has long been a fan of mechanical sculptures, particularly the devilishly clever contraptions of Arthur Ganson.
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Thinking Chair, 2007, by Arthur Ganson, the pride of Anthony Horowitz’s collection of automata
For 30 years I’ve collected automata – curious mechanisms that tell stories at the turn of a handle or the push of a button. It’s hard to know how to describe them: are they toys or are they artworks? I would say they’re both. Ingeniously crafted, they can be funny, profane, thoughtful or off-the-wall crazy.
The pride of my collection is Thinking Chair by the American genius Arthur Ganson. I don’t use that word lightly. Without wanting to sound too pretentious, each of his works is like a miniature poem. Not just beautiful to look at but meaningful too – even if I’m not sure what the meaning is.
“When I look at Thinking Chair I think of my own life, so much of it solitary and, for that matter, spent sitting down.”
- Anthony Horowitz
You may have seen Thinking Chair. I loaned it to the Arts Council and it travelled round the country for two years. [September 2016–August 2018] But this is how it presents itself. A tangle of Jules Verne machinery – metal spirals, pistons, turntables – activates a complicated arm which moves slowly round. The arm is attached to a tiny yellow chair which seems to have been borrowed from Van Gogh. The chair stands on a rough slab of stone which, given the scale, resembles an uninhabited planet. Guided by a fiendishly clever mechanism, the chair ‘walks’ on its two front legs, empty and alone, making endless circles for no good reason.
When I look at Thinking Chair I think of my own life, so much of it solitary and, for that matter, spent sitting down. There’s something comical about the little chair. Speeded up, it could easily appear in a Disney animation, but this version is strangely poignant.
How I would love to own Ganson’s piece Cory’s Yellow Chair, which explodes and then reconstructs itself, or his haunting and macabre Machine with Abandoned Doll (check them out on YouTube). Ganson’s work is truly the stuff of dreams and it’s utterly unique.
