Place-Keeper by Julian Sterz

For an ordinary object, can the sum of its parts greater than its whole? Julian Sterz tackles this question by performing surgery on a common kitchen chair, dividing its wooden construction into four separate parts. These quarter fractions are then rendered completed with wireframes, formed four new chairs out of the assemblages and fragments. Place-Keeper, the title of the piece, captures the process of the division; the original chair is somehow still perceivable when the four resultant forms are stack or placed in succession. Sterz’s answer demonstrates an affirmative, that understanding the parts that compose the whole produces added value through revealing hidden relationships.