Ceci n'est pas une boîte

Marcus Flacks first conceived of the idea of his box series in 2019, with the intent to create intimate artistic spaces, within boxes, to display small objects that can otherwise struggle for attention, despite of their artistry or importance. The process of finding objects that piqued his curiosity, and then juxtaposing these works with an image or background, became a creative path to share his reaction to the objects and elicit a reaction that might compare to his. With each creation complete, he explains, “… There is now the question of the final element, that magic ingredient without which no creative process can ever truly exist: the viewer. The viewer, their views, reactions, ideas, reservations are the final analysis the only thing that really matters.”

In this box, the textile material of the background, mashru, is a blend of silk and cotton produced in Western India. The meaning of the word comes from the Arabic for ‘lawful’ or ‘permitted’, as silk was not allowed to be worn against the skin of faithful Muslims. The technique by which the mashru was made pushed the silk to the surface and the cotton wefts to the bottom, so that the silk would not touch the skin of the wearer. It was exported to the west as early as the 15^th century, and it is traditionally striped or patterned. Here it is juxtaposed with a long pipe, inspired by René Magritte, who noted “Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.”