Box #51

One of 295 boxes created by Lucas Samaras, “Box #51” is square in form and wrapped in colored yarns and plastic jewels. The box is both adorned and insulated—the yarn serving not only an aesthetic function but also helping to regulate the interior temperature. The box becomes an object of transformation, infused with a sense of the feminine and a fetishistic allure. To access its contents, the viewer must ceremoniously open six white doors, each smaller than the last. Inside rests a magnetic stirrer, a laboratory tool rendered mysterious by its placement out of context. Typically used to facilitate chemical reactions, the object underscores the experimental nature of the piece and evokes a dialogue with the enigmatic artifacts of the Surrealists and the appropriated mechanisms of Marcel Duchamp.