Boxes. interim

I had displayed some of the work in the display cabinet that I had rescued from the skip in the car park. Paul Jones recognized this as suggesting a development in the work; not solely a method of display or presentation but a key ingredient. Initially, my interpretation was probably on the side of the literal, the box; in the manner of Joseph Cornell, but exploring the obvious is an interesting place to start the journey.

To over complicate the process, my first thought was to construct the boxes from scratch, although this remains a tempting possibility along the way, it makes more sense to ‘explore the obvious’ by capitalizing on the ready-made in the form of the everyday cardboard box.

Containing, or referencing, the work within a restricted space shifts its dynamic; holding the potential to influence both meaning and perception. So will the box be relegated to the role of ‘carrier’ containing, and informing, what’s held within and considered as such from the outset or should it become the work or, ideally, become a part of, not apart from; transforming into something beyond the sum of its parts.

To begin at the beginning, and to state the obvious, cardboard boxes are not all the same; differing in size, shape and construction. Working within a ready-made may suggest a level of restriction, but I feel that it offers a greater freedom to discover, and exploit, the given.

What form can my intervention take; what might it look like and how far can it be taken?

This journey needs to start somewhere, and I do view it as a journey rather than a destination. There are several qualities that will inform the route including text and the ‘hidden’; which I am open to collide in a quasi-subversion.

Transformative.

Applying a flat handwritten page to a three dimensional form

I started by deconstructing a sample box, ‘papering’ the inside with a print of a handwritten notebook page, before trying to reconstruct the form. The base ‘flaps’ became a point of fascination. They needed to be taped together, and to the sides of the box, to provide stability, if not then they could be angled towards the rim of the box, or away from it. A simple observation, but one that I hadn’t given a thought to before for this interaction. How could I use this

Making connections

The relationship between cardboard and wood

Does it stop becoming a cardboard box and transform into something else?

Intervention

Definition:

1. a container with a flat base and sides, typically square or rectangular and having a lid:

carton pack packet package case crate chest trunk

2. an area on a page that is to be filled in or that contains separate printed matter:

"tick the box on the coupon"

3. a separate section or enclosed area reserved for a group of people in a theatre or sports ground, or for witnesses or the jury in a law court: