Box Vox

packaging as content

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August 3, 2009

Tom Friedman’s Diffused Retail Brand Sculptures

Total-Friedman
Untitled (Total), 2000 (nine identical cereal boxes, cut up into small squares reassembled in a single larger version)

That’s Tom Friedman, the artist. (not Thomas Friedman, the journalist)

Among the works of conceptual sculpture in Friedman’s diverse oeuvre are those made from retail packages, in which he’s taken multiple packages, cut them into pieces and recombined them to form single, over-sized versions. Without a person in the photo, it’s hard to get a sense of the scale of these works. Below is one such a photo—(of a sculpture made from dozens of cut up Excedrin boxes).

Excedrin
from Educrate’s Flickr Photostream

Sometimes, Friedman has also gone in the other direction, as with these four Lucky Charms boxes (below) which are miniature versions made from the cut up pieces of one full-size Lucky Charms box.

LuckyCharms
from Christie’s Auction web site

(After the jump, a Tom Friedman sculpture made from 36 S.O.S boxes and another sculpture, as well….)

SOS-CareOn left: Image: Tom Friedman, Untitled, 2004. 36 S.O.S. boxes 47-1/2" x 40" x 14-1/2" (120.6 cm x 101.6 cm x 36.8 cm); on right: Care Package (Manipulated) (2008), ©Tom Friedman. Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery

Note: “Care Package” on the right appears to be made differently—and not with Friedman’s recombined-pieces technique. It must be pretty close to a perfect cube of packaging. I notice that it’s described as “manipulated” and I do see that the Cap’n Crunch box is backwards. Beyond that, I am clueless. Does anyone know the full story of this artwork?

(via: ArtIntelligence.net)

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

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