Chi House

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Chi House was made for the ‘BIG’exhibition at St Mary’s Church in Southampton that was curated by Southside Arts in 2000. I was and am interested in questions like: What is the difference between being spiritual and being religious? Can atheists be spiritual and not religious? Is the Tea Ceremony just social etiquette?
The idea of putting a spiritual concept more at home in somebody’s soul or a Lao Tzu poem, into an early type of tea-bag, appealed to me. For the shape of the object to be like a house conjured up the idea of a church being God’s House. To hang it from a roof-beam in an Anglican church reflecting Victorian stained glass reminded me of the fuming incense‘stencher’ found in Frank Zappa’s Camarillo Brillo; and that the surface was polished referred to eastern notions about the mirror of the mind.All this respectfully installed in a place of Christian worship. So it was done, and it was seen to be good even by the Vicar who also to my amazement appreciated the Tuning Forks, Wishbones and Magnets that I had arranged within the church.
Like the Tea-House that it is based upon it allows air like tea to pass through it. It both encloses and exists in space simultaneously. It is about 300X500X500 and weighs around 30kilos.