Box c. 1940

Curator: This is "Box," a drawing by Francis Borelli, likely created around 1940. We see meticulously rendered lines and dimensions. Editor: Huh, it's a treasure chest...well, a drawing of one. Makes me think of childhood, pirate movies, a sort of romantic quest for something hidden. Although the geometry of it takes that adventure out! Curator: Precisely! It's fascinating how Borelli transforms something traditionally associated with adventure and mystery into a formal exercise. Note the calculated measurements; this isn’t about plundering gold, but about crafting a precise design, an interest and shift within early modernist movements towards simple geometrical representation. Editor: Still, there’s something lovely in its exactitude. You see the intent, like he’s willing this box into being with the strength of his lines. Gives the piece a sort of focused energy! Curator: That focused energy reflects, in part, the drafting aesthetics of the era. But looking at it, one can argue there is an erasure of artistic presence in service of precision and the final rendering of something to be constructed, as noted on the illustration by the scale denoted below. How would one construct the idea of play? That is what interests me here. Editor: A question of our own time, to be sure, or, any time in our lives, really. And for Borelli, perhaps it's also about honoring something tangible. Even through rendering. So I still get to think about my gold doubloons! Curator: Well put, and ultimately, how we find delight, and create it is always rooted within some aspect of play, indeed. Thank you! Editor: Thank you for bringing this box of treasure and form to us! It truly makes you wonder at all we wish to contain.