About the Object

This sculpture features a New York City payphone wrapped in fabric and rope. Part of the payphone is visible, but not enough to identify the object without prior information. The concealment of the payphone is meant to question the existence of the object when it is rendered unusable or unseeable. Christo’s sculptures evoke similar tones to René Magritte’s The Treachery of Images, which famously reads “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (“This is not a pipe”) under an image of a pipe.

Additional Information

Before Christo and his partner Jeanne-Claude expanded their wrapping technique to create large-scale outdoor installations, they created many sculptures by wrapping everyday objects such as furniture and household items. See Wrapped Oil Barrels (VF2021.07.01) and Black Package (2012.10.01) also in the Vilcek collection.