The Exit Inside

A boy standing in a box, painting its walls in bright colours. “The Exit Inside”, 90 × 80 cm, mixed media.

The box is the usual way of seeing the world. People build those walls themselves, out of their own expectations.

He paints in earnest. Every stroke is an attempt to make something bigger out of what is already there.

Past the edge of the box, space. Endless and completely available.

He has not raised his head yet. That is the moment I needed: a person hard at work improving his box, proud of the result, still unaware that the walls can be stepped over.

The walls in the picture are low, lower than he is.

So he could have walked out at any point. Who is keeping him there? Only himself.

The door opens from the inside and cannot be seen from outside at all.

Buyers take it for a child's room or an office, where decisions get made.

An original by a Russian contemporary artist.