Under the Table
by Robert Therrien, 1994
Details
- Year
- 1994
- Medium
- Wood, metal, enamel
- Size
- 297.2 × 792.5 × 487.7 cm (117 × 312 × 192 in)
Robert Therrien built this oversized table and six chairs in 1994. Everything is scaled to exactly 3.6 times normal size, which puts the tabletop at roughly 10 feet high. Standing underneath it, you feel like a small child in an adult's dining room. The piece is made from wood, metal, and enamel, and it weighs enough that the floor had to be reinforced for installation.
Therrien (1947-2019) was a Los Angeles artist who spent decades making oversized versions of ordinary objects: stacked plates, folding chairs, pots and pans. "Under the Table" was the very first artwork installed at The Broad museum in LA, and alongside Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirror Room, it's the most popular work in the collection. Visitors walk between the chair legs and look up at magnified structural details normally hidden from view.
About Under the Table
The table stands about 10 feet high and is 20 feet long. Everything is scaled to exactly 3.6 times normal size, including the six matching chairs. The precision creates a convincing shift in perspective that makes adults feel child-sized.
Therrien explored the viewer's relationship with scale throughout his career. The oversized furniture transports you back to childhood, when adult furniture felt impossibly big. Walking underneath, you experience that half-forgotten sensation of being small in a world built for someone larger.
It's at The Broad in downtown Los Angeles. It was the first artwork installed in the museum and remains one of its two most visited pieces. Admission to The Broad's permanent collection is free.
Yes. Over four decades, he created giant stacks of plates, enormous folding chairs, towering pots and pans, and other everyday objects at monumental scale. The approach was consistent: take something familiar, blow it up, and let the size shift change how you relate to it.
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