Studio Orta

Vessels and containers have long appeared in Orta’s sculptures and installations —cloud-shapes sculpted from empty plastic bottles, jars of jam produced from gleaned fruit, and glass vials filled with clothes and flags— have all served important symbolic roles in their work. The cast aluminum jars, jugs, bottles, packages, and cartons in Épicerie, however, do not hold any contents, nor are they marked with significant texts or images. Rather, they are stripped of all labels and markings, revealing an aesthetic beauty born of functional design. Yet it is this absence that asks the fundamental consumer question: what about freedom of choice, if our purchases are made under the influence of seductive advertising campaigns?