Polka Dot Death Box 1986
Unique World Edition Of Originals: 8 (1 available)
Size Of Piece: 20 x 15 inches
Size Of Frame: 31 x 27 inches
Original Type: Vintage Cibachrome Deluxe 1986
Hand printed by The Artist
For Price: Contact Us
SIGNED BY THE ARTIST
IN STOCK. ARCHIVAL MOUNT. LUXURY GOLD METAL FRAME.

Elliott created this profound piece just days before he got engaged, although he did not see the connection at the time. It can be seen as a visual "Till death do us part", something very positive. Or it can also be seen as something much more ambivalent.

Elliott proposed to Elizabeth Caron on top of the Eifel Tower on the 4th of April. Elliott knew the view from the tower stretched for 44 miles! The artist liked the four fours (4th of the 4th and 44 miles).
Asked in an interview at the time if he was superstitious, he quipped in a published quote :

"I'm much too intelligent to be one of those people who are too intelligent to be superstitious!" (1986)

Five years later when Elliott took up psychology and philosophy he abandoned superstition.


Polka Dot Death Box is a graphically arresting image which juxtaposes icons of childhood, marriage and death.

Elliott states the image was inspired by wedding photos with confetti flying through the air. The whole thing looks like a bit of a party - very positive and celebratory in its feel. The gift box, the polka dot background, visually echoed in the confetti and the use of "Christmas colours" all suggest something rather wonderful. The image has a sort of 'swarming buzz of life' about it. A busy beauty full of visual jazz. But it also has a darker side. Perhaps it rather laconically sums up the sacrifices we often make for greater gains, especially in relationships and in a deeper sense, in life.
The cross is fascinating as it is on the edge of perception, half there and half not there. Although this appears random, it belies the fact that Elliott created the image using tweezers to add, remove and arrange the confetti by fractional degrees. The lineage of the image can be traced back to many earlier works but especially "The Cracked Plastic Hat" which uses a similarly dazzling subject and background and just as that image suggested "The Mad Party Of Life" so indeed, with greater substance, does this one. Deep stuff.


For the record, this image predates and bests all that rather banal Brit Art, spot painting stuff.
(See the diary scans).