Box Vox

packaging as content

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July 2, 2012

Sirous Namazi: Leaning Horizontal

If you only saw the detail shots of Sirous Namazi’s 2012 “Leaning Horizontal,” you might imagine they were consumer product photos taken at a dynamic “Dutch tilt” angle. (a.k.a.: the Batman angle)

The reality is quite a bit more interesting…

“Leaning Horizontal (2012) comprises a supermarket shelving system full of products. The sculpture is a Ready-made, though here it leans against the gallery wall at a 45-degree angle. Through this act he distorts our understanding of the object and renders it uncanny. The sculpture brings up issues around consumption, commerce, exploitation, existence and security. The sculpture leans against the wall like a painting – object becomes image.”

Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm

A supermarket fixture fully stocked with consumer packaged goods, Namazi’s sculpture is installed in the gallery like a Richard Serra “Prop Piece.”

It is uncanny, partly because it’s strange to see a tilted grocery store shelf and partly because the bottles, cans and boxes are not falling off. It’s as if some cataclysmic, seismic event had occurred and the packages just haven’t had a chance yet to tip over. Although the liquids in the bottles seemed to have found their level. (See also: Michael Craig Martin’s “On the Shelf”)

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