Ethnic handicraft from some exotic destination.

Working so fast and intuitively as I do in the Temporary Art Repair Shop, things often turn up that are psychologically and aesthetically interesting, but maybe not so suitable. Caroline Wilson came in with a small wooden box, one of these ethnic-craft things made of really nice hard-wood but with second rate fittings and detailing. I guess it was intended as a key box or something, but ms Wilson had wanted to give it to her very young daughter to play with. It’s just that the small round glass in the front was broken, which made it dangerous for children’s hands, and she also found it a bit dull. My response was to leap directly from the idea of changing the sharp broken glass into something the opposite, and also that small kids would recognize. I removed the glass, sanded the edges soft, and also stuffed the box with parts of a teddy bear. I figured it would make sense in a tactile way for a kid who hadn’t really started speaking yet.

Turned out to be a very strange object.

Then one of my assistants saw it and asked, -Isn’t that a bit Freudian? And of course she was right. Very Freudian indeed. But the thing about Freudian slips (if I may call it that) is that they are unconscious, they happen because for some funky reason your perform highly significant associations and mind-jumps without even noticing it. That’s part of the beauty with this spontaneous and fast way of making art, that you discover connections and meanings you wouldn’t get at if you sat down and thought for a long time, rather than just pursuing the first idea that popped into your head. The problem though, was that this box was meant for a wee girl, which made me very concerned with what the parents would think. Oh gosh…

You can hide your “keys” between the legs of the teddy.

So we tried to take the object away from that simple Freudian interpretation. We made the opening look like the gate of a house and added house-like decorations. But that didn’t help either. The soft house, or the house that is hard on the outside but soft once you get through the gate, is if anything even more Freudian. Blasted. Once you’we started down a Freudian slip there is only one way to slide, further and further into it. So there was nothing to do but admit failure. The object was quite successful anyway, just not suitable for kids, so I simply admitted defeat and explained the thing to ms Wilson, suggesting that the Soft House end up somewhere else than in the children’s room, in the grown-ups bedroom perhaps? Where Freudian slips are not only allowed but sometimes even wanted.

When working in the UK it is always good to stick on a disclaimer.

Object no. 45