O.T (box)
Peter Robinson
o.T. (Box)
1996
wooden box 6 parts, 1 lamp, 1 painting (sorry sold out)
box 2000 x 2000 x 2000 mm
painting 610 x 700 mm
o.T (box) (1994) is an open wooden box resembling a storage unit or temporary shelter, covered in handwritten signs with commercial slogans. "Cash in this week only", "Import specialist", "Don’t miss out" also in red, white and black, make mockery of capitalist consumerism. Robinson, while acknowledging the deadly effects of the contact period on Maori, also raises questions regarding perceived takeover bids by Pakeha on Maori resources in colonial history and its attempted reversal through the financial settlements of the Treaty of Waitangi, which can be perceived as cashing up and making a fast dollar through cultural exploitation. A placard that reads "3.125 % pure" refers to Robinson's earlier paintings in which he defined his "Maoriness" as a percentage and gibed at the way in which ethnicity is quantified in commercial terms.
The cultural exchange is extended to include global economies in o.T (box). Made at a time when Robinson was living in Germany, statements including "ish fairshtate nikht" and "Vee feel kosted dus" are phonetic interpretations of "I don’t understand" and "how much does this cost" in German. Reverting the idea of the upside down plane in his work The Great Plane Race, European countries in o.T (box) are depicted up-side-down, as if seen from the southern hemisphere. The idea of cultural commodity is extended as iconic European landmarks and land forms appear to be for sale. Slogans showing the euro, dollar and pound symbols suggest that many currencies are accepted in this exchange. One image shows a simplified drawing of Notre Dame with the notation "tsoo fairowfin", again phonetic German, here meaning "for sale" while an inverted Poland is apparently "bilikh" or "cheap." More poignantly perhaps, the "sorry sold out" painting inside the empty crate has the final say. (Text by Anna Jackson)