BLACK HOLE PIZZA BOX | MATT JOHNSON

Matt Johnson (New York, 1978) creates polychromed wood sculptures bordering on realism. Black Hole Pizza Box is the representation of a closed pizza box, barely distinguishable from a regular cardboard used for home deliveries.

The shape is squared, and the proportions are well-balanced, with promotional inscriptions appearing in a rounded and cheerful font on the sides and surface. Observing this work, one almost instinctively wonders why a wisp of steam does not escape from the open slits, due to the hot and steaming content just went out of the oven.
The answer is given by a closer look that reveals skillfully concealed truths: the designs and decorative graphics are not printed but painted, and the material with which this object was made is not cardboard but wood. Wood engraved, carved, planed, and colored down to the smallest details: the shades of colors – white, black, gray, and red – are extremely faithful, with vertical streaks simulating the folds of cardboard, even the typical black soot stains have been recreated to decorate the sides.

The peculiarity of Black Hole Pizza Box, which sets it apart from the ordinary food container, is the simulated central vortex on its surface. In fact, right in the middle the wood has been excavated to form a cavity initially wide, then, as it descends downwards, it becomes increasingly narrow. Even the ‘printed’ image on the fake cover has been distorted with a spiral effect, contributing to the illusion, not only optical but also formal, that something at the center of the box is sucking everything else in.

The black hole, in astrophysics, is a celestial body with such an intense gravitational field that not even light can penetrate, which attracts and captures anything that comes close to it. Matt Johnson evokes the concept of a black hole both in the title and in the composition of his artwork. The pizza box, which should normally be filled with delicious food and satisfy the cravings and needs of the one who ordered it, on the contrary, seems to want to drag and capture inside, through the black hole, anyone who comes near it.

Matt Johnson
Black Hole Pizza Box, 2018
Polychromed wood, 12,7 x 66,04 x 64,13 cm (5 x 26 x 25.25 in)
Courtesy of the artist, 303 Gallery, and Blum Gallery ©

Matt Johnson, Black Hole Pizza Box, 2018, detail
Polychromed wood, 5 x 26 x 25.25 inches
Courtesy of the artist, 303 Gallery, and Blum Gallery ©

21/10/2023