Tipping - Point : Meditation Stool

Wood, Gloss Paint

Winchester. UK

2010

Tipping-Point: Meditation Stool is a functional sculpture made of wood and gloss It began with my participation in a coppicing workshop, where I noticed the coppicer using a one-legged stool. That stool was not designed for comfort; it was a device to keep the person managing the charcoal kiln awake. If they dozed, they lost balance and tipped. I was struck by this as a form of enforced attention—a seat that made rest impossible and turned vigilance into a physical condition.

In reimagining that object as a meditation stool, I reverse the usual promise of meditation furniture. Instead of supporting stillness and relaxation, Tipping-Point keeps the sitter at the edge of balance. It makes meditation active and precarious: the sitter must stay present, adjust, and remain aware. The tipping point is both literal and metaphorical—the threshold between sleep and waking, comfort and discomfort, craft and sculpture, use and contemplation.