Box Vox

packaging as content

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February 23, 2011

Kirsten Justesen’s Sculpture #2

LargeBoxPhoto
2Views Kirsten Justesen, Sculpture # 2, Ed.7, 1968

Kirsten Justesen’s 1968 Sculpture #2:

“It started with the cardboard box in 1968, Skulptur II. Basically, a sculpture is a plinth with a form on top — and it’s often a naked woman up there. My Skulptur II is a cardboard box with a black-and-white photograph of me inside. So it’s identical with the basic sculpture: the cardboard box is a plinth you can walk round, and there’s a woman in it without any clothes on. And what is more, it’s the artist who has entered into her own work. It can be folded up and it’s easy to transport. It is nothing less than the ideal sculpture…”

Kirsten Justesen interviewed by Malene Vest Hansen

On the one hand, the photo on the box-top of Sculpture #2 functions as a less-than-convincing form of trompe-l’œil, as if one might be fooled into thinking that there’s actually a woman curled up in this box.

On the other hand, Justesen was curled up in this box at one point (or a box like this) in order to take the photo. As with any orthographically-projecting package, the photo on the top of the box speaks to us about the box’s contents, but here there is misdirection. The box is presumably empty and the orthographic projection is of the box’s former contents.

Fold
Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

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