The Bench

A final part of a four-part masterpiece comprising of three large embroidered paintings, accompanied by a embroidered bench — together forming an installation of a train station.

Don’t let annual rings fool you — this bench is actually an embroidery.

This is one of the most unique embroideries in the world. The work plays with the idea of ready-made but it turns this art concept on its head. What on the first glance looks like a decrepit piece of street furniture (complete with dog piss marks and a piece of glued bubble gum on the bottom side of the seat) turns out to be a perfectionist study of surface. The object’s skin is minutely remade in a luxuriously embroidered medium. The effect is striking, as unbelieving eyes investigate from up close, while hands dare to caress gentle stitch work. The whole experience is a kind of meditation on objects that are plain, utilitarian and usually ignored. Vladimir Leben, like an alchemist, turns a low-key commodity — a simple bench — into something priceless and sublime.

A couple of years ago, a story appeared in a newspaper about stray dogs from Moscow. After a building boom in the nineties, stray dogs had to evacuate formerly empty industrial halls in the city centre, move to the suburbs and leave the best food sources behind. Surprisingly, it didn’t take long before they figured out the subway system and started to commute daily to the city centre.

Dimension: 180 x 42 x 42 cm | 70.9 x 16.5 x 16.5 in
Number of stitches: over 7.2 mio
Thread length: over 86 km | over 53.4 mi
Development: over 1300 person hours

Price: on request

Thanks for reading!

PS:
If you like our embroidery artwork please recommend this post (by hitting the👏 button a few times, sharing or following), so other people can find it.

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