Rib Cage

Terry Fox was one of the leading figures of West Coast performance art, Conceptual Art and Fluxus, prominent trends in both the American and European art scenes during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Fox studied art at the Cornish School of Allied Arts in Seattle and later at the Academia Di Belli Arti in Rome. Before permanently moving to Europe, he settled in San Francisco in 1968. Fox’s diverse body of work ranges from performances, street actions, videos and sound interventions to objects and installations based on the conceptual experiments he carried out in relation to the use of the body, sound and language. Created within the conceptual framework he defines as “situation”, the artist’s works relate to particular spatial situations, the presence of objects in a particular place, and their interactions with each other.

In "Rib Cage", Terry Fox creates a labyrinthine structure resembling a thoracic cage by using delicate cables that materialise the circulatory system and strips of white paper that represent the chest bones. Through this reinterpretation, the artist emphasises and questions vital processes associated with the body which he perceives both as a creative source of inspiration and a means to acquire knowledge. Over the years, Fox’s personal struggle with Hodgkin’s disease and its effects deeply influenced his work. The artist not only lost one of his ribs due to consecutive radiation treatments, but he also had to remain in medical detention for some time. Placing a paper skeleton in a picture frame, Fox disrupts the established vocabulary of medium, form and objects. The fragility of the materials he employs, combined with the lines and numbers he adds to the surface, transform the work into a personal narrative about the vulnerability and transience of the human body, which is coded, measured and displayed.