Mystery Box

[walsworth]

I spotted this box in our warehouse last night. Why would anyone make an empty box and write on it in 12 languages?

 

[granger]

maybe they plan on targeting many key markets

 

[Melendez]

Maybe it was an instruction from your supervisor.

He might have reckoned you were foriegn since you wander around the warehouse taking photographs rather than do the job you were given.

 

[walsworth]

You are so sharp, be careful, you might cut yourself.

 

[Harbinger]

In which language is "empty box" almost "cutie koala"?

 

[Warbler]

'pussy cartoon' would be the one that loses something in translation I fear

 

[Bar the Bull]

In which language is "empty box" almost "cutie koala"?

Romanian.

 

[krizon]

Wals - quick, grab it and enter the next Tate Modern exhibish! Could be worth a fortune to the right collector, someone who finds it amusingly ironic, yok-yok.

Catalogue No. 196
"Empty Box" by Walsy

Exploring the spatial realities of the banal within the multicultural context of a globalised world, Walsy's "Empty Box" embraces the conceptuality of space with an object which is both aesthetically everyday and yet mysterious. £400,000.

 

[Grey]

Brilliant thinking.

Magritte painted a picture of a pipe and captioned it, in strictest accuracy, "This is not a pipe".

This empty box is an interesting opposite to that non-pipe.

Magritte's painting was a mere representation of an object, and the purpose of his title was to remind us of this fact. On the other hand our multilingual carton maker has created the real thing. It is a genuine empty box. Any yet, just like the non-pipe, it can never be used as a box. The caption placed on it by the artist prevents it from ever being used for boxly purposes, for then it would no longer be empty. It is a non-box.

Magritte's caption reflected a truth while this artist has used a caption to change a truth.

 

[krizon]

You and me in a dead-heat in Pseuds' Corner, Grey!

A friend asked me how on earth one assesses its merits, when an arty type confronts you with an abstract painting/collage/mixed media/bollocks. I said, "Just lean back, look to one side a bit, place your hand thoughtfully on your chin and say, slowly, 'Yesss, yessss... I suppose it does possess a certain spatial reality' and leave it at that."

 

[Colin Phillips]

Much too kind, Kri.

...........but I do quite like that Magritte bollx!:blink:

 

[walsworth]

Just had another peek at it while stabling the old MEWP (Mobile Elevating Working Platform) it's actually printed on BOTH sides!

 

[krizon]

Damn the expense, eh? Hopefully, inside, there's another notification advising people not to enter the box, or put anything in it. I should consult your manual: See Boxes, Empty, non-use thereof. I expect there will be three pages of EU regulations on its correct non-handling and non-usage, with heavy penalties for any infractions.

 

[clivex]

Krizon

When you are "confronted" with an abstract or whatever...just decide whether you like it or not. whether it draws you in and makes you look twice ...or not. Jackson pollocks, cy twombleys and rothkos i find impossible to walk away from. but Kadinskys leave me a bit cold.

Theres a great exhibition at the Saatchi gallery right now.. I possibly prefer strong abstract painting to any other form


Not a fan of surrealism. Magritte not for me

 

[Colin Phillips]

Did someone mention Pseud's Corner?

 

[krizon]

Clivex - I'm happy with a pretty wide range of art. I like Cy Twombley, Alexander Calder's mobiles, although Mark Rothko's huge red blurry squares always looked like a bit of a put-on to me, and Elizabeth Frink's unprepossessing, expressionless horses leave me cold. Since I was a kid I've liked Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Expressionism - most isms, in fact - and mixed media. Unfortunately, Senor Dali has been fashionably denigrated because of his self-promotion, but his brushwork is exquisite, his palette of sandstone and sky colours quite extraordinary. I like him hugely, and the ironic humour of Kandinsky. As long as what's done is done well, is thought-provoking or amusing, I don't mind what label it's under.

My remark about spatial reality was a little joke, a jibe at the pompous balloons who strut about the galleries, spouting gibberish. ("In the room, the women come and go, talking of Michaelangelo", etc.)

 

[redhead]

It isn't an episode of You'e Been Framed or the like, with hidden cameras watching to see how long it is before you crack and have a peek?

 

[ItalianStallion]

Probally the government organisting an inside job for its police force

 

[clivex]

Good stuff Krizon

Cy twombley was a real revelation to me at the tate last year. You shoud get to the saatchi gallery. Also jeff koons exhibition at the serpentine is wonderful.

 

[Warbler]

Since I was a kid I've liked Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Expressionism - most isms, in fact -

But does that extend to Bridgett Reilly

 

[krizon]

Thanks, Clivex - I've never visited the Saatchi, so that sounds like a darn good idea before winter closes in. Koons is another I've quite liked, too, so that may well be a double-header.