The Maslow Pyramid presented as an over-the-counter medicine. This art project is the quick fix for your next step in life.
This project will only be funded if at least €4,800 is pledged by .
Good? Good! Me? I'm good. Though if I'm honest some days are better than others. Some days feel perfect - you are content with your life and at peace with the universe. Some days you struggle just to survive. We all experience different levels of contentment and satisfaction in our lives. The important thing is to keep things in perspective and keep your eyes on where you want to be in the long run.
That's where these Maslow, inc medicine boxes come in handy: they can help you to see your station in life clearly, and can help you realise what the next step is you have to take. Reflect on how you are — using the Maslow, inc medicine packaging series.
This is an art project that has many levels of meaning for me, but that is fairly simple in its essence: The packaging IS the product. These boxes look like over the counter medicine boxes, made from cardboard, professionally printed. Together they form a consistent series as if they are individual products in a range from one manufacturer. Each box measures 11 x 3 x 1 cm. The size is approximately that of a box of paracetamol or aspirines.
The boxes are empty, but not empty of meaning.
What is the function of art? For me art has many functions, and they all are represented in this object: Art is beautiful. I like the primary colors and modernist design of the boxes, I like the tight design in which everything fits together, connects and has a logical place. I like it when a design comes together like that.
But beauty alone is not enough. What is art at its best?
It makes you a better person.
Art is good for you. It helps you develop yourself, into a happier, more intelligent, more empathic, fully rounded, better person. It helps you take your life to the next, higher, level.
The Maslow hierarchy of needs is a model for personal development, describing the stages of growth in humans which can be represented as a pyramid. At the bottom are the most fundamental needs for survival, like food and shelter, without which little else is of much importance. At the top is self-actualisation: a person's full potential and the realization of that potential. Maslow describes this level as the desire to accomplish everything that one can, to become the most that one can be.
I have always known that art plays a part in that for me. And I think it can do that for a lot of people;
Art functions as a symbol or representation of self realisation: no person more his best self than the artist, creating the art, and by extension elevating the person that knows to appreciate it to its level.
And I know you're not there yet. I am not. Almost no one is. That is the beauty of the full range of the pyramid: you know where you are, where you been and where you can go.
This art can help you!
For the people that just don't buy that regular boxes could or should be considered 'art' I am including some examples of very high profile art that, for me, almost blatantly lead the way to this particular concept, bu more importantly, that I love and admire and get very excited by.
I am not implying to be part of some tradition or the same league of art. But these empty boxes that look like commercial over-the-counter medicine actually have so much resonance with contemporary art that I admire that I am vibrating with excitement:
These are first and foremost pop-art: Art as a commercial product. Art reflecting on commercial design and packaging. Many artists from Andy Warhol to Damien Hirst have made art as or from packaging, commenting on the commercial value of art and the position of corporations and brands in our culture and civilisation.
These are like ready mades as well. They look at first glance to be regular (so also carefully designed) packages of medicine, taken from a drugstore. Their format and material are functional, disposable. Artists like Marcel Duchamp have taken ordinary objects and declared them art, thereby redefining what modern art can be.
This is sculpture: these are physical objects in space and they engage with their surroundings; they change the context of, or at least the conversation in, the room they are in. And this is graphical art: they are designs on color and form, design is integral to their function and relevance.
And this is conceptual art: the idea is the most important aspect and transcends these boxes; I imagined Maslow as a corporation, selling the stages of the pyramid as a product: it is art as a medicine and as a product. But a corporation also needs to market and sell the product. These boxes are only the first instance of this idea and brand. I have ideas for advertising campaigns, videos, sculpture, prints, environments…
Still I can hear some of you say "Sure, nice colours, but why and where would I keep an empty box around the house?"
To which I reply: these are actual boxes — who said they should remain empty?
Here are some suggestions on how to actually use the boxes:
Join the elite, collect art
Be a collector of contemporary art — Art is good for you. It is pretty! It is decorative! And contemporary art is a reflection of the times and society we live in. More importantly: the most wealthy and influential people in the world all think owning art is a big deal! Owning art is a signifier to others that you are a person of the world / a free thinking individual / a person with status and taste.
So be all you can be, be a collector of contemporary art. You’re worth it!
And with this project get the most art for your money: these boxes combine graphical/ conceptual/ sculpture/ popart/ social commentary art. And all that still in a very affordable package that is easy to handle, store and display!
Give the gift of a better life
These box-sets make great gifts to commemorate special moments in a life, the you might call transitionary or transformative events.
They make great gifts for a promotion, or new job. Why do you work? Sure, to make money to be able to eat and put a roof over your head (physiological). Or maybe you like your colleagues and the company has a fun culture (belonging). Or you like the status that your title affords you (esteem).
Give them to your (grand)son for their graduation. Give them to your friend that started over after a divorce. Give them to your friend that is still figuring out what to do with their life.
Being reflective about what happens in your life, by being reflected in art, can help you realise the choices you are making — or that you could or should be making.
One box from the right step may act as a mirror of your achievements and your dreams. The complete set can function as a personal development tool to reflect upon your career- or life path as a whole.
Store your valuables (drugs)
These are fully functional boxes; proven by all types of pharmaceuticals being stored and sold in boxes exactly like these. So — why not store your drugs in them?
Your drugs say a lot about you: Choose the box that corresponds to what it means to you: the paracetamol in 'physiological', the LSD in 'self realisation'. The coffee in 'belonging', the cigarettes in 'esteem'? You decide!
'pick your condom'
You do not need to restrict yourself to drugs. Put your condoms in 'safety'. Or put the condoms in 'belonging'. Or put condoms in 'esteem'. Or: buy the whole set, put condoms in all, and let your one night stand date choose which one to use.
Surprise your house guests
Contrary to what they say your house guests will check the contents of your medicine cabinet. Why not give them a surprise? Why not give them something substantial to think about? Why not show them how witty and contemporarily ironic you are, by keeping a full set of Maslow, inc in your medicine cabinet!? Must give them pause…
Educate your patients
More seriously: As a psychiatrist or GP or social worker you have to prescribe actual medicine or deal with people using medication. But sometimes the situation calls for a less chemical and more psychological approach.
This is where Maslow, inc can help you: Keep a set of boxes on display or in your emergency kit. What better way to start or steer a conversation to a mental or sociological level in a very low level and understandable way than a full set of attractive and professional looking boxes of aspirational medicine?
Memento Mori
This is your life. You have only one of it.
You have to make of it what you can and you have to deal with what you encounter. That's why a lot of people turn to religion. But religion has its problems. I understand why you would not engage in it.
Still it is useful to have a framework to think about the purpose of life, happiness, fate. Maslow, inc provides you with just the sort of affordable product to tackle those high level issues with. Reflect on the pyramid to reflect on your station in life. Keep the appropriate box near and visual for constant motivation and affirmation. Keep the others in storage for reference and reassurance.
Why pledge?
This project is very dear and important to me. I see a lot of potential; not only in making this set of boxes, but in extending the concept beyond, to bigger sculpture, prints, environments… but this object, this set of boxes, is the core. This is the heart of the concept, which is essential, and in itself is a perfect object.
Everyone is positioned someplace on the Maslow Pyramid. Would it not be nice to just be able to purchase the next stage of your personal development?
Well, now you can…
…not really. But making you think about these things, about your place in the world and your position in life, is exactly what art is meant to contribute and facilitate. That is what this project, or imaginary product, is all about in the end.
I am working with an experienced package printer, De Budelse, with which I have worked before with clients such as Heineken, and who have extensive experience with clients in the cosmetic and healthcare sector, to create these boxes.
They will be high quality industry standard boxes. And if funding is particularly effective I will add relevant embellishments like spot varnish or embossed printing, to make the packaging all the more spectacular and commercially attractive.
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