Richard Box
The GRV
Edinburgh, Scotland
4 January – 14 February 2008

by Rea Cris

The room is void of natural light and sounds. Entombed, you don’t know what time of day it is or whether the noises you imagine you hear are traffic or countryside. Like a welcome mat, the show announces “Danger High Voltage”.

This is London-based Richard Box’s first solo-exhibit in Scotland. Organized in partnership with VINEspace, the exhibit inhabits GRV Project’s Studio One Space. Well known for his ‘Field’ installation from 2002, Box’s medium is light, both the physical electrical components and the metaphysical connotations.

The only source of light in the gallery comes from the works themselves; they occupy the corners like children with dunce caps. A table lamp limps over, a defeated Pixar character, its bulbs oozing out. In another corner a purplish pink coil lies expectant on the floor like a basket with a baby.

The most striking piece in the exhibition is ‘Burger’. An immaculate uneaten hamburger, nestled in it’s faded yellow Styrofoam case. The hamburger is fabricated from rings of brightly colour lights, red tomato, green lettuce, yellow cheese. The warmth of these colours mingled together, resembling the comforting warmth, both physical and emotional, provided by a fireplace. It is the personification of the lure of the fast food culture; a sirens’ song of false happiness. The hamburger loves you, come close.

Yet all is not cynical, there is still some magic left in the world. ‘Micro Climate’ is an old chipped microwave, signalling you to press the button to turn it on. I’m irrationally scared of electricity and my mind can’t help thinking about the warning, “Danger High Voltage”, but the curious cat inside me can’t help but push and leap back to a safe distance. Nothing happens apart from an old microwave humming and drumming as if it were jogging. Then crack flash, truly a microclimate within a man-made micro-universe.

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