Toy Box

James R Ford

Wellington (NZ), December 2009

For this project the Travellers Box adopted the function of a toy box, an integration of art and daily life. Ford uses the unseen presence of his 8 month old daughter, Mollie, in this work to imply the vulnerability and complete dependence of humans in early life.

For 3 weeks in December 2009 a selection of Mollie’s toys were stored in the Travellers Box. The toys were removed, swapped around and replaced ad hoc whenever Mollie was in the mood for playing. The box was used in the same fashion as a normal toy box, moving from room to room as required, and documented at various intervals over the duration of the intervention.

Immediately a dichotomy is established: Mollie’s colourful, safe and mainly soft toys are being held captive in an ugly, hard, sharp metallic vessel. The edges are dangerous so Mollie cannot be left alone with it. The viewer can envision Mollie banging her head and hurting herself on the box while innocently attempting to grab her toys.

Instead of being anxious about the multitude of possible things Mollie could hurt herself on, and trying to baby proof every eventuality, the artist is placing an actual danger in her reach.

Below is a video recording of the box reciting a nursery rhyme via a toy within. A strange combination of clinically cold box and imprisoned, happy singing voice.