Washing Powder Boxes, 2008 - 2011

Sentimat, 2008
25,5 x 14 x 39cm,
papier-mâché, oil paint, acrylic paint, b/w copies

A Sentimat washing powder box was molded with papier-mâché, painted with oil and acrylic paint and pasted with black and white copies. However, since it is a hollow form, this ‘simulated readymade’ (cf. Boris Groys, Über das Neue, 1992) deformed in a very idiosyncratic way.

Top, 2010
28 x 13 x 38 cm,
'Top' washing powder box, acrylic paint, b/w copies, paper 

A new Japanese washing powder box from the Lion company from 2010 was cut open at its gluing points, emptied and unfolded. It was then glued together again in reverse with the printed sides facing inwards (red, orange, yellow) and painted on the outside in shades of gray and pasted with black and white copies.

On the search for Japanese washing powder boxes in large pack format, the research led to Kao Corporation, which has been producing washing powder in Japan since the early 1950s. It also maintains a museum at its headquarters and has also set up a museum with older examples of washing powder boxes at its headquarters in Tokyo.

The two copies 'Super Zabu' (blue, green, yellow) and 'New Bizu' (white, blue, red), which I have chosen for my work, date from 1960. For my artistic work, the washing powder boxes were reproduced in the original dimensions 1:1 from cardboard then painted with acrylic paint in various shades of gray and completed with black and white copies.

Super Zabu, 2010
28 x 13 x 39 cm,
cardboard, acrylic paint, b/w copies, paper