Box Patterns

2015
box patterns from items purchased by artist, powder coated steel
variable dimensions

For one month, Swanson saved every box from every purchase he made. Each box was disassembled, flattened, traced, and fabricated in steel, then powder-coated flat black. The resulting objects are permanent records of disposable packaging rendered permanently flat, stripped of their original function and content. They cannot be folded. They cannot hold anything.

The titles (Anti-Diarrheal, Touch of Gray Beard Dye, Melba Toast) inventory the mundane and the intimate, cataloging a month of consumption in dialogue with George Maciunas's One Year (1973-74). The powder coating erases all branding, all text, all color, leaving only the engineered geometry of the box pattern itself: the tabs, folds, and tuck flaps that represent an invisible design discipline optimizing material, structure, and economy. Stripped of their printed surfaces, these forms echo the vocabulary of geometric abstraction, revealing the hidden modernism embedded in everyday industrial design. What remains is a tension between presence and absence: the object is here, but its content, its purpose, its language are gone.

Anti-Diarrheal (Loperamide) 5.9 x 2.9 inches
Adidas Originals High-tops 16.1 x 13 inches
Bausch & Lomb SofLens 4.5 x 2.8 inches
C-IN2 Core Brief 9.5 x 5.4 inches
Calvin Klein Athletic Brief 6.2 x 7.7 inches
Crest Complete Toothpaste (Travel Size) 3.1 x 4.4 inches
Crunch Peanut Butter Clif Bar (12-pack) 11.3 x 7.5 inches
Easy Tabs Acetaminophen 4.6 x 4.2 inches
Homesense Tall Kitchen Bags 9.3 x 6.4 inches
Melba Toast 5.5 x 8.4 inches.
MH-24 Nikon (quick charger) 5.4 x 8.9 inches.
Milton's Original Multi-Grain Baked Crackers 3 x 3 inches
Morton’s Kosher Salt 11.5 x 15.5 inches
Neutrogena Transparent Facial Bar 2.7 x 2.7 inches
Oxo Salad and Herb Spinner 11.2 x 20.2 inches
Phyto Intense Hydration Shampoo for Dry Hair 6.7 x 5.1 inches
Quinn Popcorn Parmesan & Rosemary 6.3 x 7.9 inches
Tom’s Dental Tape 4.9 x 2.7 inches
Touch of Gray Beard Dye 5.1 x 5.2 inches
Up&Up Original Prescription Strength non-drowsy allergy relief (antihistamine) 4.8 x 3.3 inches
2(x)ist Contour Pouch Brief (3-Pack) 11.1 x 5.7 inches
3M Cold Comfort Reusable Cold Pack 4.2 x 6.3 inches