A true gift is intimate. It is a carrier of meaning that involves the capacity to amuse, delight, and identify empathically with our recipient’s desires. This exceptional artwork by New York-based conceptual artist Barbara Bloom, entitled Gifts, explores the nature of gifts in relation to aspects such as wrapping, covering and uncovering, pleasure, and generosity.Gifts consists of a unique linen box containing eight different giftwrap papers, designed by Bloom. It also includes a special edition of the book Gifts, with text by Susan Tallman.
A passionate collector of ornamental paper from all over the world, Bloom has studied the history and aesthetics of gift-wrapping in detail. In Gifts, she tries to blur the conventional distinction between art and life, whilst offering new insights on notions of concealment and revelation. ‘Can the box be an artwork? Can the wrapping be the gift?’ – she questions her readers.
Bloom’s work has been shown internationally, including exhibitions at the Venice Biennale and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gifts is both a unique collector’s item and a further step in the artist’s personal investigation into the world of objects.