Taking the lid off the box

If you thought a box was just a simple closed container, Celebrating Boxes will open your eyes to the extraordinary versatility, expression and inventiveness that can go into their creation.

"We live in boxes, we travel in boxes, when we finish work in our boxes we go home and relax in front of one. Bearing this in mind it doesn't seem that surprising that some of us start to make them."

So says Sam Gorman, British artists and one of eighty sculptors, painters, furniture and boxmakers from over fifteen countries whose works are on display in the new interactive exhibition that takes the lid off the box.

Some have been created with function in mind - for keeping jewellery in, or writing materials, whilst others contain nothing more than space for the imagination to play in.

American Po Shun Leong's Landscape Box is more sculpture than box, carved and multi-layered with its moving parts, a light and a secret compartment while Emi Ozawa's work is motivated by how the box opens.

On her Pendulum Box you have to swing the pendulum before the lid slides away to reveal the hidden space. Children will be encouraged to look, touch and try to work out what the boxes are, how they open, what is inside them, what sounds and even smells they make when opened, and what they are made of.

There will be a series of children's workshops on making pop-up boxes, butterfly boxes, origami boxes, boxes made of scrunched up paper and even animals created from boxes.

Celebrating Boxes
Croydon Clocktower (020 8253 1030).
Sat 9 Feb-Mon 6 May.
Adults £3, children £1.50, family £8, under fives free.

Workshops for ages six and over Sat 23 Feb, Sat 2, 9 & 16 Mar, 1.30pm.
Adults £2, children £1, family £4.50.