The electrician who dismounted this old fuse box took photographs of it, since he had never seen anything this old still in use.

This old cast iron(?!) fuse box had actually been in use in Michael Scott’s house until very recently. He had painted it white himself since his wife hated it, but when the electrician finally swapped it for a newer (and most definitely safer) version, he still felt bad just chucking it away, but luckily enough there was now a refuge in the art repair shop. What struck us about it is probably the same reason why Michael liked it himself, its solid, early industrial and very material construction. The first thing we decided to do, even before the final design came to me, was to strip away all paint and brush it up, to reveal the dull lustre of cast iron again.

Sanding and polishing off paint with a dremel is a lot of work, but in this case really payed off.

It’s a beautiful object in itself, but I still wanted to do something with it. Since the function (it once had) is such an integral part of its design and look, I had to do something playing with the idea of electricity, and I also wanted to include the slight fear and disbelief we generally experience when encountering the attitude of Victorians towards safety (still encountered in many less affluent countries today). The half naked tangle of loose cables was added for this reason, to suggest the possibility of getting electrocuted. None of them are connected to high voltage of course, but two of them are connected – to a battery powered fairy light hidden inside the box. Now, if someone should take it upon them to play with the copper wires and accidentally or on purpose managed to bring the connected ones together, the cold blue light inside the box would briefly spark to life, suggesting a remnant of Victorian electricity still residing in this solid old iron troll.

Fairy light in Iron box.

Object no. 43