You don’t need an 11-inch-tri-fold manual to live in this world, Please Sit for the Alternate Ending can be read as care instructions before instructions for use; what is on offer is the option –– maybe you sit? When no alternative is in sight, a choice is hardly a choice.

Jeff Martin and Sam Klemick are two designers familiar with an Alternate Ending. For each work existed previously in an unrecognizable form, its final destination found straying from the tried and true, or ultimately, a material down on its luck, preparing to cash in its chips.

The Alternate Ending for Sam Klemick is simply one that never does. To the designer, an idea must be expressed in repetition to be understood. The desire to take dead-stock materials, salvaged timber and create heirlooms of the future is bred from her long lineage of craftspeople. Klemick teases ‘infinity’ not just with her circular methods or familial echo, but with symmetrical forms and repeating patterns; sewing her respects to the great MC Escher. A chair masks its playfulness in a costume of comfort, the ’necessary’ is undermined. The chair could have been minimalist, you could sit on the floor, the materials could reach their expiration, but you see, the ending is alternate. 

The 'cannot be done' is required reading if one seeks to redefine it. Jeff Martin explores a fascination with gesture and the sculptural in his ‘Sarcophagus’ series. Unable to explain the unexplainable, Martin works clay spontaneously and methodically in an attempt to shine light on the enigmatic wonder of being alive. An object of affirmation for the individual’s role as custodian. Martin blends spontaneity and skill with technical knowledge, ‘the classical approach’ is acknowledged, honored, and sometimes employed. A pathway that led him to something far more interesting than a coffin. The alternate ending unfolds; the choice being whether to build or bury. 

Please Sit for the Alternate Ending opens August 17, 6PM in New York.

THE ALTERNATIVE ENDING IS KIND OF VAGUE.
THE ALTERNATIVE ENDING WILL BE SIGNED AND NUMBERED.
THE ALTERNATIVE ENDING KNOWS NO EXPIRATION.
THE ALTERNATIVE ENDING TAKES THE SCENIC ROUTE.
THE ALTERNATIVE ENDING IS A NEVER ENDING GESTURE.
THE ALTERNATIVE ENDING CAN COMFORT BUT WON’T TALK.
THE ALTERNATIVE ENDING IS PRETTY BUT NOT WITHOUT REASON.
THE ALTERNATIVE ENDING IS A RERUN CAN YOU BELIEVE IT.
THE ALTERNATIVE ENDING DIVORCES FATE AND MARRIES WILL.
Please Sit for the Alternate Ending.