March 2005

A lot of work went in to this box.  As the images show I constructed a two tiered box that held a number of bottles.  The box was made from a wooden orange crate that I found in the Coquitlam River.  Each bottle contained a topical solution made from a base of grape seed oil, seasoned with various essential oils such as: lavender, pine, eucalyptus, palmarosa, cinnamon, spruce, fennel, tea tree, lemon, lime, grapefruit, and bay.  The result was an aromatic “remedy” that could be rubbed into the skin.  Each bottle listed the ingredients, had instructions for proper use, as well as listing what the remedy could treat. 

A few examples of the remedy labels:

For Union:  Stand facing your chosen partner. Both

take four drops and gently rub them into the heart

region of the other.  Focus gaze into partners eyes

until you are both overcome

Ingredients: Lime, Grapefruit

For Grieving:  With hands crossed over each other,

rub five drops into the pectoral region while in

the fetal position.  Assume this posture until sleep

takes you.

Ingredients: Grapefruit, Palmarosa

For Voyages:  Rub one drop into your forehead

and then go for a walk in the forest. Collect a

handful of moss, a bud from a shrub, and a creeping

insect. Apply four drops to these items and hold them

in your palm while meditating for ten minutes.

Ingredients: Spruce, Palmarosa

I made approximately 60 of these bottles and displayed them in the usual spot.  I also added another sound effect.  This time I pilfered the “quacker” from the belly of one of my son's stuffed animals (A Mallard), and placed it in a tiny box with the instructions “Press here for spring sounds”. Unfortunately someone smashed the little box and stole the “quacker”, (visible in one of the photos following it’s destruction).  I also found a couple of the bottles smashed upon the pavement. Some oaf had destroyed them along with the quacker (this happened sometime in the first 10 hours of putting up the offering box).  Disappointing, but such are the risks of random objects erected in a public place with no oversight. 

My notes say that I received one Loonie, and two notes (see scanned image) from some mysterious people who were moved by the gesture.

There was one very special surprise that I placed in one of the remedy bottles that was unlike all the others.  Instead of an elixir, I put this note:

Greetings.  Please contact this email 
address: P----------------- @yahoo.ca

to make arrangements for a meeting,

a gift from the heart and the continuation of

this story.

Happily, someone contacted me a few weeks later, and I gave them a series of instructions (via email). They were to go to Uprising Bakery on Venables St. at a certain time on a certain day and speak to a small woman named N____a.  She would reach behind the counter and give them a brown paper bag with a gift inside.  When the stranger arrived, N____a gave the person the bag and remained silent.  When questioned, she revealed no further details to the stranger, and then bade them farewell.

What was the special gift!  It was a handmade book, bound in wood and linen full of original photographs that depicted a fierce struggle between two matriarchal figures set in the alleyways around Commercial Drive. It was amazing!  In its execution it made the works of Roy Arden, Stan Douglas or Jeff Wall look like images taken by a senile old grandparent armed with a disposable camera.

I received an email from the recipient of the gift a few weeks later (after some prompting by me).  They appeared to be unimpressed by the gift, and did not seem to share my unbridled enthusiasm for it.  Oh well. Nevertheless, I was extremely gratified by the whole exchange.  They had carried through with the gambit and now had in their home something of great personal joy to me.  Who were they?  Are they you?

Box prior to installation

Box installed, taken after vandals had disturbed it.

Box with damaged "quacker"