Glued to the box!

Glued to the Box – An Exhibition by Me, Tat Vision

Glued to the Box was my latest exhibition, and honestly, it was a right ole laff putting it together. It was all about TV and film characters from the 90s—from the UK and USA. The stuff I grew up with. The kind of things we used to be glued to back in the day, before everything went digital and flat.

The show had these characters with big cardboard heads—kind of weird and oversized, like a walking telly dream. But the real fun was in the wooden boxes. I built a bunch of them with sliding doors, and when you opened them, bam—papier-mâché faces staring back at you. People loved it. Got loads of interaction. You’d see someone slide open a box and start laughing, or just go “what the hell!” in a good way.

Some of my favourites were Bruce Willis in a Hard Box, Crate-Tanic and Packed Butcher—Pat Butcher boxed up with them earrings of hers.

I also made a full-on living room/bedroom setup—like a little 90s kid’s space. You could sit down, put a VHS on (yes, an actual VHS!), draw, mess around, and play with old toys like Action Man. It was so good seeing kids today trying to figure out what a VHS even is. One of them picked up a tape and asked if it was a phone charger. Made me feel about 100 years old.

And then there was Boxbusters—my fake Blockbuster-style setup with performers Vianney and Poonam running it. People could sign up for a membership and get quizzed on films. It was half cinema geek test, half chaotic roleplay. Gave the whole show this daft nostalgic energy, like you were actually in a 90s video shop but with way more papier-mâché.

The whole show was super fun. People were into it, proper engaged with the boxes, the space, the weirdness of it all. Felt like a shared memory—some of it theirs, some of it mine, all mashed together in cardboard and glue.