Project 04: Fluxus Box

The Hungering Maw

When presented with the challenge of creating a Fluxus Box inspired by a movie of our choosing, my mind instantly went to the most infamous pirate films to ever hit Hollywood -- The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. I wanted to create a box out of clay which mimicked the bottom of the ocean, inspired by the film's most popular antagonist, Davy Jones, who wandered the deep as a horrid monster transformed by the sea and the curse of the Flying Dutchman.

As with Davy Jones, however, the design for the box shifted to be more monstrous than merely the bottom of the sea. Adding a giant orange eye, and a few sharp teeth which hung outside the maw of the chest, it truly became something mythological, something that looked appropriate in the films. Despite much trouble in actually crafting the box (requiring two complete start-overs), the end product was indisputably magnificent.

The Items for the Fluxus Box:

• Bound Dead Flowers - representative of the love between Elizabeth Swann and William Turner (protagonists of the film) as well as the now dead love between Davy Jones and Calypso, the sea goddess. Meant to symbolize the hardship of love and the inseparable bond and pain that comes with said bond at times.
• The Green Ring - a ring bound in rope and dyed green. This symbolizes the promise of marriage of Will to Elizabeth, but more so his eventual marriage to his duty aboard the Flying Dutchman. A physical symbol of bondage to the sea covering that to his wife.
• Wooden Knot - a wooden circle with a metal loop tied around it before further rope. Symbolic of the bond that Will makes to his father to free him from his servitude to Davy Jones, promising to pierce the heart of Davy Jones, but ironically, it is Will who has his heart stabbed by the devil of the sea. Representative of broken hope.
• Submerged Crushed Shells - a small container filled with water, with white paint dried on the inside and tiny chunks of shell within it. This symbolizes the betrayal and broken heart of Davy Jones by Calypso. Pain and betrayal now forever curse the Dutchman and its crew as its captain hopelessly tries to drown out his suffering.
• Green Rope - the symbolic binding of life and death throughout the film.

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