Page 19 - C.A.L.L. #38 - Summer 2014

Sharing Benches: Acts of Communalism

Francis Cape sees the use of benches as an important act of communalism common in
both historic and contemporary societies.
By Francis Cape
January 2014

We Sit Together (Princeton Architectural Press, 2013) by Francis Cape presents
twenty-one beautifully reconstructed benches drawn from twelve utopian communities,
both secular and religious, active from 1732 to the present. Cape investigates how the
structure and values of each community found expression in their benches. This
selection from the introduction discusses historic acts of communalism.

Twenty benches are gathered in
the middle of a room. Each is built
from poplar and finished in the
same rubbed linseed oil. No two

are the same. This is the
sculpture Utopian Benches. I made
the sculpture as a way of
thinking—and talking—about
communalism as both a historic
and a contemporary alternative to
individualism. The definition of
communalism I use here is the community of goods. Broader definitions such as that
suggested by Timothy Miller do not make as clear a distinction from materialist
individualism. Sharing a bench means sharing the same material support; also sitting at

the same level. When gathered in a room for exhibition, the benches are used for
public meetings and conversations on subjects chosen by those who have chosen to
come. Leaders or moderators, if present, sit with the others on the benches; they do
not address the group from outside.

I made the benches using measured drawings taken from original benches that were,
for the most part, made for and/or used by communal societies. Each bench is a
facsimile of one used and, in some cases, currently in use by a communal society. The
originals are in a variety of woods and finishes. I chose to make them all in poplar
sourced locally near my studio, as using locally available lumber is what they did. The
linseed oil finish is characteristic of early Shaker furniture. My research took me from
historic sites and museum villages to contemporary communes, both secular and
religious.

The focus of the work is the nineteenth-century American intentional communities,
particularly those with a craft tradition, most famously the Shakers, but also the
Community of True Inspiration in Amana, the Harmony Society, and the Society of

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