Portrait of a Chair, 2022

The chair is the genesis of many of Shenstone’s narratives. It’s an object that so often serves a quiet but dependable supporting role to the human who sits in it – but Shenstone’s chairs always charmingly remind us that they were here before any of their sitters. They take on life, with chair and person often depicted by Shenstone as a single intertwined being. For an artist who is consumed by all the unseen inputs that create us, that makes total sense: aren’t chairs and bones wrought for the same simple purpose, to prop us up? And for all the realms that Shenstone’s chairs play host to, their serial reappearance becomes a poignant reminder of her celebrated lineage in portraiture.