Danger Cabinet
Why
There’s been a rusting old box by the roadside for as long as I can remember and because it’s green, I presume it’s an old redundant telephone junction box. I thought about painting it in all sort of bright colours, but then thought that I’d be better working with how it looked already and make something more subtle. I asked my neighbour Judy for any suggestions on what to put on it, based on some loose criteria I had and it was suggested that I put some sort of warning on along the lines of “NEVER, EVER, EVER OPEN THIS CABINET”. I used part of that idea in the eventual design which evolved slightly.
When
July 2019 and July 2021.
Where
At Rothwell’s town centre’s busiest junction on Church Street.
Materials / Media
Laser printed paper taped together.
Production
It took quite a while to put together but I also spent a few days researching and playing with ideas, symbols and corrosion. I thought it would be good to make the design and typography look as old as the cabinet and I’d been watching “Chernobyl” which has a great looking dodgy typeface on it. I don’t think I ended up using the closest one I found but it did give me a feeling for how I thought it should look. I spend quite a long time looking up various things on line. Leeds City Council used to have a different logo in the 70s and/or 80s so I found just one image of this online and recreated it. I then looked into corroded signs. I also wanted there to be some sort of unspecified set of hazards. In the end I went with symbols from the realms of absolute rubbish no-one with any sense would believe in, with astrology, alchemy, mythology and demonology. The 4 “hazard” symbols used correspond with the hyphenated letter couplets. Astrology – Leo, Alchemy – Earth, Mythology – Typhon, Demonology – Digdin. And an amusing and unexpected warning about not inserting your penis into a corrosion hole that really would be bad for any body part to be inserted into. The orange triangle was some military thing and the triangle with circles on it’s points might have been based on another alchemy thing, but with part cut off.
Execution
I glued it on with waterproof PVA glue.
Notes
This fits into the surrounding area very well and seems to be as knackered and obscure as it was before so I’m not sure if anyone even takes notice of it. I like that though. If someone does look at it they have to try a bit harder and I like that the part about not inserting penises is difficult to read.
Duration & fate
I really didn’t expect this to last more than a couple of days, but it lasted until it faded to nothing. Then it was replaced again in July 2021. By 2022 it was looking somewhat similar to this. I don’t think I’ll replace it with the same thing again.