About this artwork
The mask element in this work is made from the top of a plywood leg splint designed by Charles and Ray Eames and manufactured in 1942-3. The metal L-bar is part of the Eames-designed storage units (ESU 400s) which were manufactured in 1950-5. Boyce compares the ethos in which the objects were originally made during the post-war boom (using manufacturing techniques developed by the military for mass-production), to the cultural role they now fulfil, based on fashionable taste and monetary value. He deliberately altered the items - making the leg splint into a tribal mask and the L-bar into a spear - in order to highlight their changed role.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Martin Boyce (born 1967) Scottish
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title:Now I've got real worry (Mask and L-bar)
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date created:1998 - 1999
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materials:Plywood with wire hanging fixture; steel rod with plastic foot (damaged L-bar from ESU 400 storage unit designed 1950 by Charles and Ray Eames; and altered plywood leg splint designed and manufactured by Charles and Ray Eames in 1942-43)
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measurements:38.00 x 19.80 x 7.50 cm (part one size); 148.90 x 1.80 x 1.80 cm (part two size)
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object type:
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credit line:Purchased with the Iain Paul Fund 2001
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accession number:GMA 4371
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gallery:
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artwork photographed by:Antonia Reeve
Martin Boyce
Martin Boyce
Boyce was born in Hamilton, Scotland and studied environmental art at Glasgow School of Art from 1987 to 1990, before completing an MFA in 1997. He is interested in the ideals of modern design and architecture and how these have changed over time. While acknowledging the revolutionary ideas behind...