4 3/4” x 3 1/2” x 3 1/2”

With pencil, copper, sterling silver, optical lens, sapphire watch crystal, glass, fine silver and abalone, and acrylic paint.

THIS BOX IS NOW SOLD. FINAL BID $550.00.

"THIS SIDE UP?" doesn't offer much on its surface. To draw more out of the piece, you are compelled to pick it up, to peer into its guts. As you peer into the box, you see some of the perennial elements of Haida Art, and even as you look, those edicts are toppled. The house of mirrors flips, twists, and crosses the static formline elements. An early working title was “Imprismed,” a play on the notion held by some that the principles -- or constraints -- of Northwest Coast Art somehow limit expression. The reverse portal (mirrored) shows you only yourself until you approach it, and then it reveals a box empty, except for some ghosts of Haida elements, and the other side of the box. By design, this box is less inviting than the classic bentwood box, which is generally understood to be the height of expression in the Haida/NWC form. Instead, it appears much like a cargo crate, complete with stenciled, "THIS SIDE UP?" The orientation of the lettering is counter-intuitive to the direction of the pointing arrow. The side that is pointed out by the arrow has a design of two crossed ovoids. This is a direct contradiction of the Haida edict, “Thou shalt not cross formlines.” The challenge here is that the design is stolen from a historic box. It is an acknowledgement that those old guys were exploring and stretching within their forms long before us upstarts came on the scene. On the back face of the box is a sort of troglodyte that reflects you, and doesn't care. On the front face is the keystone to the piece, a simple visual pun: Mouse Woman looking up and Raven looking down. Raven is serious, examining the craftsmanship of the box, while Mouse Woman defies authority.