From the Catbird Seat

Barri Harper

Hixson, Tennessee

Chattanooga State Sculpture Garden III
Part of the campus permanent collection
Steel Height 6'8"
photo by Denise Franks Heinly with Maggie McMahon and Tim Barber

In James Thurber's short story, "The Catbird Seat," sitting in the catbird seat is equated with "sitting pretty," with being in control of life. Barri Harper's sculpture "From the Catbird Seat" suggests that, in our modern technological society, sitting in the catbird seat can be oppressive. The hunched figure, caged and cramped, symbolizes the dilemma of modern man, who both benefits from technology and is trapped and oppressed by it. The regular geometric panels composing the "cage" emphasize the strictures of technology, and the dehumanized figure trapped inside, the stifling of the human spirit.

Barri Harper is a Chattanooga State alumnus, graduating cum laude with an Associate of Science in Art in 1992. He lives in Hixson, Tennessee, and is a 1976 graduate of Hixson High School. Harper donated "From the Catbird Seat" to Chattanooga State.

Biographical information taken from Sculpture Garden III viewbook, 1995