Paper, cardboard, acetate, spray paint and soft copper, with glass dome and bamboo base
19w x 27h x 19d cm
I’ve had the concept of this piece for quite a number of years — Can you have communication without the object it’s written or displayed on?
So, I sat with it; occasionally sketching or writing down different forms of the idea. Then we happened to be driving down a street in Fitzroy, and I saw this particular mailbox, and I knew this was my ‘bouncing off’ point. Most of the writing in this piece was actually as it was written; I just needed to take a little bit of artistic license to make some of the letterforms overlap or enlarge others so that they would link. But to the many people who placed their mark I hope I have done them justice.
It took quite a while to create and design the components so that they slotted together and most importantly stood on its own. Also to find the correct paper and cardboard. The paper needed to be strong and crisp enough for the very fine detail, with strength enough to hold its form. While the cardboard needed to be thick enough so that I could layer it with just enough layers, so it was uniform with not too many layers, or it would start to look messy. I actually needed to cut the inner cardboard pieces twice because I miss calculated by a couple of millimetres too big, and the outer pieces were too small, so some trimming was required.
The envelopes are made from true to scale envelope template and the window in each envelope is from bank envelope paper.
It was terrifying to make because it was so fragile, but I want to keep exploring this theme.