Graduation project
The big pile of cardboard boxes
Gabriel Richard
A big pile of cardboard boxes inked with emotive personal scenes acts as a visual reminder of how much is experienced in daily life.
Being in the presence of a mountain’s grandness can make us experience strong emotions, so too can a bunch of boxes. Gabriel Richard built a personal city mountain using the many discarded boxes in the streets of industrial Eindhoven. He paints feelings, experiences and stories on the outside of cardboard boxes that are stacked high. The black ink paintings are dramatic, partly academical and somewhat cartoonish. They feature faces with an intense, expressive gaze. A person lies in bed with their dark underlined eyes almost fully open. The alarm stopped ringing. The paintings are inspired by religious iconography, made to be understood without the need for text. The boxes are a visual diary for Gabriel that shows how much life we actually live.