Most people spend their retirement traveling or golfing, but Steven Chayt of Winter Haven, Florida, had a very specific, three-decade-old goal. Standing 24 feet high in his yard on Old Thornhill Road is the “HOHO Chair,” a massive wooden structure designed to look like a toddler’s potty chair. The seat features a central hole, and directly beneath it lies a vinyl slab painted with the open-mouthed face of a clown, nicknamed “The Catcher.”
Anchor: Chayt says the inspiration struck back in 1992 after he saw the work of French avant-garde artist Marcel Duchamp—specifically his famous 1917 urinal sculpture. A French artist friend even gave Chayt a miniature model of a potty chair that year, which he kept as a “mock-up” until he finally retired in 2014. According to Chayt, the chair isn’t just a joke; it’s a “metaphorical wormhole.” Coordinates on the chair point directly to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where Duchamp’s work is housed. While Chayt secured a county building permit for the “lawn ornament,” his neighbors in the Grey Fox Hollow community haven’t all been amused, with some calling the structure “disgusting.” Chayt, however, says he has too much time and money invested to take down his masterpiece.
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