"Crates in Arch" Installation View
Artist: Christopher Casanova
Paris, France 1996
This installation was created using fruit crates both stolen and borrowed from a near by open air market. The arch is one of many arches located in the 12th arrondisment on the Avenue Daumesnil. At the time, the arches, the support of an old aqua duct, were being retrofitted to become the studios and work shops of artists and artisans. This particular arch was the studio of a glass blower named Scott Slagerman. The facade was made up of big panes of glass, which made for an incredible play on light- during the night, as viewed from the street, the interior lights were filtered by the airy thin walled wood crates, emitting a really beautiful glow, and the opposite was true during the day when inside of the space.
101 Avenue Daumesnil Paris, France 75012
As can be imagined, the construction of this piece required a lot of crates. I was sure that I was going to have to gather up the crates by less then honorable means, so I rode my bicycle through the market very early in the morning and grabbed up crates attaching them to a sled that I had cobbled together and pulled them back to the site. After four predawn excursions, I thought it wise to get an idea of how many crates I still needed to nab. Sadly, all of my hard work did not even add up to one complete row. It is true that the thought of abandoning my plans did come to mind. However, before giving up, I decide that I would try a different approach. I wandered through the market and eventually found out that the empty crates were all recycled- loaded up in large trucks and shipped out of Paris city limits. I had the good fortune of meeting one of the owner/drivers of the recycled fruit crate company and after showing him my drawings and describing my plans he agreed to deliver a 40 foot container full of crates to 101 Avenue Daumesnil. What a break! He helped me unload and returned two weeks later on the day of the scheduled removal of the installation and loaded up all of the crates. I knew him only by his first name, but I am ever in debt to Francois.
When the installation came down, I had this idea that I could simply pull a couple critical crates and the whole wall of crates would come tumbling down. This was not the case. I had lashed the crates to the structure in several spots for added stability and that is exactly what I achieved. The wall of crates had become a superstructure and would not fall. I ended up removing vast quantities of crates and only then did it fall. The tie wire that I used to fasten the crates to the facade held several crates in mid air. In the photos the hanging crates give the illusion that the piece is in the middle of falling, which is rather nice.
"Crates in Arch" Installation view-falling
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