Untitled (Box)
1988
Untitled (Box), 1988
mahogany wooden box, rock, hard covered handmade book with ink drawings and notes, gloves, pen, and instructional page
4” x 5” x 4”
The intent was to have the viewer engage with the box intimately as collaborative contemplation or dialogue. The piece was accompanied with instructions as steps towards opening the box, supplied with white gloves for handling if preferred. The top layer of the box had a rock and the bottom contained a hand made book with a few ink drawings I had drawn in the first few pages. A pen was supplied if the viewer wanted to draw or write into one of the empty pages. Most of the time, participants chose to comment rather than be creatively expressive. The piece was exhibited twice and therefore two different books were used. In the art gallery, contributions tended to be critical or observational as engagement, whereas the ethnic festival had a more varied range of responses both creative and critical. In turn, the piece became a kind of a collection of social specimens, in relation to the abstract drawings, the rock, and the box as an operational ritual.
Sculpture
