WINDOW BOXES
Opposite this hotel apartment complex here in Sydney is an apartment building. With a facade of glass it is like a large vitrine, with lives exhibited. A distant echo of the small cabinets that would travel to the country school I went to as a child, magical boxes containing microcosmic exhibits from the museum in the city far away. Like the Wardian cases that the plant hunters packed New Zealand's plants into to take them back to the Mother Land as exotic curiosities. And, echoes too, of Joseph Cornell's constructions, shadow boxes containing surreal collections of elements, evoking a somehow forlorn air.
And these window boxes are most definitely forlorn. On display are not the exalted moments of life. These are not trophy cabinets, more like atrophy cabinets. Places where things go to waste away. Life's detritus packed into these spaces, marginal zones, out of sight for the residents perhaps, but exhibited for the world beyond. Life as Readymade.
And these window boxes are most definitely forlorn. On display are not the exalted moments of life. These are not trophy cabinets, more like atrophy cabinets. Places where things go to waste away. Life's detritus packed into these spaces, marginal zones, out of sight for the residents perhaps, but exhibited for the world beyond. Life as Readymade.
Wardian Case
Joseph Cornell, Planet Set, Tête Etoilée, Giuditta Pasta (dédicace) 1950
Joseph Cornell, Planet Set, Tête Etoilée, Giuditta Pasta (dédicace) 1950
Window / Box, Sydney, 2008
