Box with the Sound of Its Own Making

1961

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

From inside an otherwise ordinary wooden box emerge the occasional sounds of hammering, sawing, and sanding. These sounds form part of a three-and-a-half-hour recording that Morris created while making the very box in front of us. The audio soundtrack reframes our experience of the work, suggesting an ongoing act of labor, which is interrupted only by the necessity to rest or retrieve more supplies. The work is a manifesto of sorts: insofar as it makes evident the means and methods of its own production, it heralded a paradigm shift in art, one in which process, duration, provisionality, and incompletion take pride of place.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

Title: Box with the Sound of Its Own Making
Artist: Robert Morris (American, Kansas City, Missouri 1931–2018 Kingston, New York)
Date: 1961
Medium: Wood, internal speaker, 7” cassette of ¼” tape, 1999; artist provided Digital Audio Tapes (D.A.T), 2011; digital copy of D.A.T tapes.
TRT 3.5 hours
Dimensions: Wooden Cube: 9 3/4 x 9 3/4 x 9 3/4 in. (24.8 x 24.8 x 24.8cm)
Overall: 46 x 9 3/4 x 9 3/4in. (116.8 x 24.8 x 24.8cm)
Classification: Variable Media
Credit Line: Seattle Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Bagley Wright
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art