Martin Creed Work No.74

Martin Creed

Work No.74 

London, UK: Self-published, 1992

10.1 x 10.1 x 10.1 cm.

Edition of 100 [+5 AP] signed and numbered copies

Originally an unlimited edition, this works consists of ''As many 1 inch squares as are necessary cut from a length of 1 inch masking tape and piled up, adhesive sides down to form a 1 inch stack."

Packaged in Styrofoam, the work was typically accompanied by a typed letter outlining the artists intentions: 

"If anything, this work began as an attempt to make something, if not nothing. If that, the problem was to attempt to establish, amongst other things, what material something could be, what shape something could be, what size something could be, how something could be constructed, how something could be positioned [...] and how many of something there could be, or should be, if any, if at all."

Like all of Creed’s work, it is numbered rather than titled. Works numbered 67, 75, 76, 77 and 78 are near-identical. 

I worked at Art Metropole shortly after they hosted Creed’s first Canadian (North American?) solo exhibition. One of these was left stuck to the windowsill in the office, to basically rot in the sunlight.