An art installation with white furniture, including a chair, a small stool, and a small chair, in a white room with striped walls. Multiple monitors and cameras are suspended from the ceiling, displaying images.

Please Be Seated , An Interactive Video Installation by contemporary artist Nicole Cohen that allows you to interact with the Getty Museum's 18th-century French chairs.

The installation blends footage from decorative arts galleries in the Getty Museum and three French museums with live video captured by a surveillance camera. As you sit in reproductions of the original chairs, you become part of the installation, virtually entering historic recreations of 18th-century French spaces. With this installation Cohen compresses time and space to create a metaphorical game of musical chairs.

Two white chairs floating in a flooded room with a TV mounted on the wall.

Please Be Seated, Nicole Cohen - Getty Museum Commission - Chair Collection / Decorative Arts

Background Information

Please Be Seated is a video installation by contemporary artist Nicole Cohen that allows you to interact with the Getty Museum's 18th-century French chairs.

The installation blends footage from decorative arts galleries in the Getty Museum and three French museums with live video captured by a surveillance camera. As you sit in reproductions of the original chairs, you become part of the installation, virtually entering historic recreations of 18th-century French spaces. With this installation Cohen compresses time and space to create a metaphorical game of musical chairs.