Do you question the art of submission? Have you seen the new masterpiece created by Anna Uddenberg called Continental Breakfast Chair? Want to take a closer look at its cultural relevance and artistic interpretation?
Please read the article to know how sculptural materiality can crowd our understanding of authority and technology influencing our need for independence. In the modern world, technology, authority, and wealth have manipulated our perception of needs.
Submission is integral to completing or fulfilling our needs. This is the capitalist’s way of manipulating the customers to think they need a certain product or service! The Continental Breakfast Chair exhibits a challenge to this manipulation technique.
In the article, I will interpret the art and how it removes the fog of the distorting reality of passive submission. The sexual and pseudo-functional influences of the market are highlighted by the way it challenges the perception of body technology.
“Symbol Of Passive Submission”: Ugly Truth Of Modernity As Depicted By Continental Breakfast Chair!
The boundaries between person and object are blurred with the Continental Breakfast Chair, an art created by Anna Uddenberg. The exhibition premiered on 18 March with a live performance and was on exhibition till 29 April 2023.
To become a user-friendly, technologically driven world, we are allowing a data-driven world to become our reality. In the longer run, originality will be a concept only in theories, while humans will be in control of technology as they cannot tell the difference between choice and submission.
The art brings to light the practice of Objectification, which has become extreme in modern times. According to the artist, the capitalist market imposes the need to submit ourselves to authority, wealth, or technology.
Humans are ready to give up on our rights to make our decisions. Instead, we assume others control us. The art title is more of a definition for the modern activities of people who would do anything to satisfy their hunger.
Objectification is one approach where authority, power, domination, greed, control, and respect are used to capitalize on the market, products, and services. Continental breakfast represents sexual fantasy or fulfillment of horny fetishes from an object, in this case, a person.
Concept Of Continental Breakfast Chair!
So, the question is what is the Continental Breakfast Chair? The underlying conceptualization of the Continental Breakfast Chair as an art is Loss of control: the act of submission. The chair staging symbolizes passive submission, where the focus is to obtain or buy a way to satisfy the needs.
If you want to understand the art piece, you have to learn the title reflecting the artist’s perspective where the primary need of individuals is based on hunger, a more sexual type. It allows individuals to survive by using the tools that are available to them.
A sexual interaction that pleases only one partner reflects the functioning concept of a capitalistic market. Based on my interpretation, I realize that the chair symbolizes control, domination, luxury, power, authority, respect, and greed.
The dynamic of power is relevant to the Continental Breakfast Chair in modern times, exploring the themes of sexuality, gender, transition, and technology. The creator has more of a pessimistic perception of modern times, especially because modernity celebrates notions of submission and control.
Loss Of Body Autonomy!
The human body is an important symbol of consent and freedom, yet its dependence on digitalization overrides the body with every technological advancement. A simple example of losing the right to our bodies is how hospital equipment works.
A person can be bound to a hospital bed or a chair during a medical operation or an examination. During these arrangements, the space, be it a hospital, a hotel, or an airplane, influences our perception of body autonomy. Read the article as the concept of Continental Breakfast Chair explained!
We lose control and agency over our bodies in these spaces; thus, we become submission without even realizing it. Anna Uddenberg is trying to address this issue in modern times. The exhibition piece shows how depending on technology can have a negative impact on our bodies.
The ubiquitous presence of authority and technology has ensured that the interaction between objects and bodies becomes increasingly intertwined! A convergence of body and things through technology has made surrendering or submission a normal practice.
Anna Uddenberg’s Exhibition Of Opening Performance
An exhibition by Anna Uddenberg, the Continental Breakfast Chair is a site-specific solo featuring striking cultural representation and begs for artistic interpretation. The piece details functionality and how technology wields control over our bodies!
The artist’s creation is explained by Hausa Novel, informing that the piece challenges wealth, authority, and technology! It raises how humans submit to these aspects of life, blurring the line between objects and persons.
The piece highlights how people are often objectified based on technology, wealth, and authority. The weird part is in modern times, humans crave this submission to the power integrated and manipulated worldwide with these factors.
The art can be taken as a warning of how we are giving way to the perils of technology, where hyper-functionality will lead us to relinquish our independence, especially when we allow authority, wealth, and technology to exert control over us.
Intercepting The Artist’s Idea!
Her take on the piece is that functionality in the modern world manipulates us by exerting control and increasing awareness of our independence by integrating user-friendly technology.
The sculpture by the artist raises the question for us to consider the benefits and the risks of maintaining a delicate balance of technology in human life. It is because we think that technology makes us independent; instead, we don’t realize that we are giving up on our independence.
With technological advancement and digitalization, our data is collected, and our thoughts and ideas are on an open platform with no privacy, especially with pictures and videos. Losing control of our body is the next step towards complete and utter submission!
The Objectification Of the Female Body
Not just in art, it is a common practice in society; one of the biggest representations of our social setting is in the movies, where Objectification of the female body is abundant.
Stories in the movies might be told of the female leaders but the focus is on their bodies as their clothing is revealing; the camera moves across their body parts slowly and is highlighted as demeaning by men!
The mere perception of a female on technological or digital platforms reflects that perception is mostly based on the male’s perspective. The continental breakfast is, therefore, a phrase used to dictate how a woman’s body is being controlled or requires an external agency to be guided.
The chair might be a mix of hospital equipment and airplane seats, a symbolic meaning. However, showing the rearrangement of everyday materials and objects that is a step towards comfort also challenges body autonomy.
How Continental Breakfast Chair Addresses Patriarchal Impact On Women?
In ancient times, women were alienated and objectified based on patriarchal practices, clearly an outcome of oppression. In modern times, we are quite aware of feminist approaches, yet bodies are objectified. Submission in ancient times was an expectation; now, in modern times, it has become a practice.
The patriarchal oppression is a result of the experiences of women and the way she is controlled! Based on patriarchal practices, men have considered women’s body structure an object of desire from earlier times. With technological development, we have often questioned gender roles.
It is because female submission symbolizes beauty in society’s perspectives. There is something natural in a woman’s submission. However, it is not at all realistic, especially when women were not born to be submissive.
Passive submission is not a form of agreement, nor does it reflect the weakness of women. Instead, the artist has been successful in articulating her perception of society. She highlights powerful women scaring away the men of the world! From the perspective of the patriarchal world, to be a woman and have independent sexual endeavors is to rebel!
Why can’t it be just what it is? A normal act of sexual encounter or an individual enjoying the act of sex! Instead, we as a society label a woman with a sexual appetite with different names in this modern world highlighting it as negative. This shows that technology has not freed us but instead bound us further to being objectified!
Technology Influences Gender Roles!
Technology has played a significant role in portraying gender roles and reinforcing typical gender stereotypes. According to the advertising and marketing industry, humans use technology because it encourages traditional roles in the society.
From ancient times, society thought women were submissive and passive. Men on the other hand were dominant and aggressive. The normative expectation regarding sexual hunger is that men are hungry while women are what they eat!
This is where the art Continental Breakfast Chair highlights the multifaceted role of gender and technology intertwined. The artist highlights the stereotype where user-friendly technology is concerned, especially the way they objectify the body.
Hyperfunctionality leads to human bodies at potential risk of losing control. Technology is controlling the human body in the hope that it will simplify their lives. The art exhibition prompts the onlookers to question their surrendering to technology and giving away their agency of body autonomy.
Cultural Phenomena: Why Is It Called A Continental Breakfast?
So, what is a Continental Breakfast Chair? There are two examples of futuristic-looking chairs in the exhibition. Hospital accessories and plane seats are inspirations for the artist of the designed chair exhibit as art. The perspective is that the chair is the perfect seat for a human meal!
Yet, the said human meal is controversial as it is a sexual act while the “food” is a woman! The woman is transformed into an object and is served as a meal. The theme reflects on the cultural phenomena where technology influences gender roles.
Culture influences us because we are humans as technology and authority superimpose our contemporary life. We are always ready to give in to the power of functionality and tend to let the market control our needs.
We give away our control because we feel it is necessary for our growth and development. The power we let others have on us is almost similar to passive submission. Even though we do not agree with it, we accept it as normal behavior somewhere.
It is not! Staying in a comfort zone is right, but losing out on your understanding of human actions, body autonomy, and hyper-functionality value evokes questions on privacy and convenience.
Artistic Interpretation!
The artist advertised the piece, the Continental Breakfast Chair online as she posted videos of the installation process through posts on Instagram. The Instagram page filet_minion_thong showcases the Continental Breakfast Chair in a post on 22 Match 2023.
The post gained 12,000 likes over two months. Later, the user @thelifegallery posted the video of the chair on TikTok, which had a slideshow of images of the art! The TikTok video garnered over 185 million views in 2 months.
Another TikTok account posted the video of the chair and a woman getting on it @breakfastbyanna, where there were almost 813000 views in one month. A viral sensation, the chair captivated the attention of online discussion groups. The Continental Breakfast by Anna has garnered a lot of social media attention!
Many people started interpreting it as a symbolization of sexuality, while some addressed it as a sexual innuendo. I interpret this chair as an art piece that will raise questions on bodily autonomy and utility.
The artist is questioning our body’s dependence on technology. With her design, she wants to know how technology controls us. When reevaluating utility, the Continental Breakfast Chair confuses people concerning bodily autonomy. She highlights the way we are manipulated in airplanes, hospitals, and others through technology.
Capitulating Modernity…
The Continental Breakfast Chair questions the relationship between the human body and technology, especially where the body is giving away its control! technology challenges gender roles equally because technological advancement blurs the lines between reality and performance.
Humans are visual creatures, so the art presents an understanding of the utilitarian structure where getting into the comfort zone means giving up your freedom. The art exposes the skeletal structure of society vehemently among people.
Giving away body autonomy may lead to serious issues of future concerns of individual independence and the right to decide on their own!
Comment below on how you interpret the Continental Breakfast Chair and its influence on cultural and artistic realization!
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