Sculpture: Science Fiction Machines

Abstract

On 19 June 1974, Granada's television programme 'Granada Reports' contained a review of the John Moore Exhibition at Liverpool and on the next evening's programme there was an item on one entitled 'The Even Moore', a cocky salon des refuses, organized by Peter O'Halligan (Dream Merchant), that opened in Liverpool on the 11th June. It was in the latter exhibition that my 'Pandora's Box' was first shown. Granada's reporter described it as a sculpture for people who eat chickens. A little girl called Dawn, no more than two years old, visited the exhibiton each day, climbing up the stairs from the shop below where her mother worked, just to watch and listen to my chickens. 'Pandora's Box' (Fig. 1) is a sinister-looking dark wooden chest with a wooden moulding at top and bottom. The construction consists of a strong wooden frame covered with marine plywood sheet in order to give the impression of a strong solid piece of furniture. At the top of the front face is a small door with a brass lock and at the bottom of the rear face is an ominous thick electric cable that curls away to a small black box on a 3 ft. stand. In this box is played a tape recording of the noise made by lots of real chickens. (Some thought that I had recorded the sounds made at a