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 Boyce compares the ethos in which the objects were originally made during the post-war boom (using manufacturing techniques developed by the military for mass-production), to the cultural role they now fulfil, based on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
  • title:
    Now I've got real worry (Mask and L-bar)
  • date created:
    1998 - 1999
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Purchased with the Iain Paul Fund 2001
  • accession number:
    GMA 4371
  • gallery:
  • artwork photographed by:
    Antonia Reeve
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Martin Boyce

Martin Boyce