Whilst we were working together in his garden I discovered that he spent a lot of time clearing up waste wood that had fallen from the trees. For twenty years he had been carefully sawing up this wood and storing it in crates. There are now 185 crates filled with this waste wood in a specially constructed garden shed. For him, this method was an efficent and economical way to save the wood (which would ultimately be used in the fireplace). For me, these crates are something of beauty.
185 crates open their souls
Together, we decided to photograph the crates. We had to lift each crate several times, taking it out of the shed, putting it into the wheelbarrow, taking it to the lawn and lifting it out onto the grass in order to photograph it - and then the whole process in reverse! This took us two whole days. We looked at the boxes, compared their contents, their ageing and the way they had been organised thus ensuring that we respected the care with which the crates, or more specifically their contents, had been created.
and hide them away again
About the creation of this artwork
Ideally, I think that all 185 pictures should be displayed together on one large wall so that so that the ageing effects on the crates can be fully appreciated. If you don't have a wall that is big enough you can purchase:
a photo of a box of your choice (75 x 50 cm) including grid, printed on high quality photo paper and mounted on mdf;
a photo box with 10 photos (30 x 20 cm): ten individual photos on thick photo paper in a representative box;
a book (30 x 30 cm) with linen cover on high quality photo paper in which all 185 chests the story of the project show case.
