Monday Inspiration ✨
Artist: Matias Faldbakken
Between crushing the crate and hanging it, function becomes art. Matias Faldbakken works in that moment.
In 1917, Duchamp placed a urinal in a gallery and called it art. The object didn’t change—the context did. Faldbakken takes this further. He doesn’t just recontextualize industrial objects, he destroys their ability to function first.
Industrial lockers designed for security get strapped together with belts until they can’t open, lock, or store anything. Function dies. Pure form remains. Then he places them in a gallery, and the context shift completes the transformation.
Collage operates through recontextualization—taking something from one context and placing it into another to create new meaning. Faldbakken’s practice is pure collage methodology: he appropriates industrial objects and cultural materials, removes them from their original context by destroying their function, then places them within the art system where they’re suddenly visible.
The moment a shipping crate stops being useful and becomes something you look at—that’s the collage moment.
Text by Max-o-matic
