The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of aChair by Le Corbusierby Ellen Pearlman on August 15, 2014

Still from Amie Siegel s “Provenance” (2013), HD video, color, sound; 40 min, 30 sec (image courtesy theMetropolitan Museum of Art)

Amie Siegel s three-part installation on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Provenance,”traces the rehabilitation of ruined Le Corbusier furniture from Chandigarh, India, as upscaleappetences for chic global lifestyles. It is an artist s subtle wink and nod confirming that valuetruly lies in the eye of the beholder.

“Provenance” follows the backwards trajectory of the furniture s sale at esteemed auctionhouses, their cargo route direct from refurbishing workshops, and their origin as desultorycastoffs in a once grand but now a decaying city designed by one of the 20th century s greatestarchitects, Le Corbusier. Also included in the exhibition is “Lot 248,” a short film about the saleof Siegel s “Provenance” film proof in London last fall by Christie s auction house.

Amie Siegel, “Provenance” (2013), HD video, 40minutes, color/sound (image via amiesiegel.net)

This reversal of history, or in auction parlance, “provenance,” follows the tried and true logic ofan authentication document. It begins with the artwork s current owner and lists each previousowner. Siegel has employed this method before in her 2008 feature film DDR/DDR, tracking anEast German molded-plastic chair from its abode in the former socialist Plattenbau, or prefabapartment block, to a flea market, then a hipster shop where it was sold and sent on a cargoship, ultimately landing in a trendy store in Manhattan s high-end Tribeca neighborhood.

Still from “Provenance” (2013) (image via amiesiegel.net)

“Provenance” begins with a gorgeous parallel tracking shot of beguiling furniture coolly waitingfor the owners of chic homes to inhabit them. This scenario plays out in West London, aParisian apartment, a house in Belgium, a Manhattan loft, various houses in the Hamptons, andeven a luxurious yacht replete with an ornate elevator. The impersonal nature of the shotsis careful and considered; if you didn t know better you d think you were watching ahigh-concept infomercial for Architectural Digest or Restoration Hardware.

A manhole cover was moulded with sand-castrelief depicting a map of Chandigarh as drawn byLe Corbusier. (via Times of India)

You witness the furniture being touted at American and European auction houses to the highestbidder. A pair of club chairs from the Chandigarh High Court fetch $16,000 from a phone buyer,and Artcurial in Paris hammers a Chandigarh manhole cover at £15,000 ($25,000). What thebuyers most likely didn t know at the time is that many of these pieces were condemned as unfitfor use by the local Indian administration, and as a result sold at auction to junk dealers orbought from clueless state officials who had no idea about their worth on the internationalmarket.

The camera penetrates the world of furniture restorers, ferociously ripping the decrepitupholstery off the wooden frames while dust motes scatter between shafts of workshop light.The frames are then retrofitted in linen, leather, and horsehair as repurposed luxury items. Yousee cargo shipping containers viewed from helicopter tracking shots and find yourself in theIndian ports where the furniture was loaded onto ships.

Still from Amie Siegel s “Provenance” (2013), HD video, color, sound; 40 min, 30 sec (image courtesy theMetropolitan Museum of Art)

Le Corbusier and ChandigarhThe architect Le Corbusier dreamed of new urban models for Paris, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janiero,and Algiers, but none of them was ever built. When India was partitioned in 1947, the Swissarchitect was commissioned by the country s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to buildChandigarh, the new capital 180 miles north of Delhi. His team, which included his cousinPierre Jeanneret, designed The Capitol Complex, the Secretariat of government offices, theParliament building, and the High Court, not to mention the sculptures that adorned the plaza,the door handles, and even the office furniture. It s a Swiss vision of perfection delivered to Indiawholesale but with unfortunate and desultory results. The concrete became stained and startedto crumble, while monkeys roam freely, swinging between the complex s vast arches. Stacks ofcouches, mostly designed by Jeaneret, are discarded in ungainly piles in a dank,abandoned corridor. Government employees prefer to sit on cheap new plastic chairs in theircubicles and pile stacks of bureaucratic files atop the remaining Jeanneret furniture.

“Proof (Christie s 19 October, 2013),” also in Siegel s installation at the Metropolitan Museum (viaamiesiegel.net)

Siegel was not content to only show the rise and fall and resurrection of the furniture, but shedelved into the whole process of assigning value by bookending “Lot 248,” a short film about the2013 auction of “Provenance,” with “Proof (Christie s 19 October, 2013),” a Lucite embeddedprinter s proof of the Christie s auction catalogue page for “Provenance.”

What Siegel s body of work probes is similar to the world exposed in Giuseppe Tornatore s 2013film The Best Offer, where an art auctioneer is beguiled by a neurotic heiress. That filmrevealed the tricks and illusions behind the acquisitive impulse. As savvy artists like MarcelDuchamp knew, with the framing and presentation it s possible to sell the contents of a pissoir.

Amie Siegel: Provenance continues at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1000 Fifth Avenue,Upper East Side, Manhattan) through January 4, 2015.