’Kit of Parts’ is ongoing project that began in 2007 and forms a growing collection. The content of the kit is a mixture of found, bought and fabricated objects – both natural and man-made. Each object, or grouping of similar objects, is housed within its own box. All the boxes are hand-constructed from recycled cardboard and silk thread, and lined with soft cotton velvet. The kit currently consists of 27 cardboard boxes housing a diverse array of objects from cat´s whiskers and elastic bands to brass grandfather clock pulleys and dried daffodils.
The kit is used to explore and intervene throughout the surrounding space, working with and responding to the architecture and existing features of the walls, ceiling and floor. A typed list of the contents accompanies the work that forms a poetic inventory of the Kit. With this list, the work becomes a kind of treasure hunt and the audience can choose to look and find particular items.
With the placement of the boxes at floor-level, viewers bend down to discover the contents of the kit, lowering themselves to the height of a child. Carefully constructed from throwaway materials to house things generally over-looked, the boxes exhibit a gentle absurdity. As much as they are made to protect, they are not particularly robust. I hope for a feeling of care and wonder, a sense of discovery as the viewer navigates the space of the installation, one that demands a slower and deeper looking than most everyday experiences. A feeling of whimsy and light-heartedness but also a sense of interconnected-ness and fragility, and how one thing rests upon another.