Those of us who grew up playing Tetris credit the game with teaching us everything from patience to time management to packing skills. For Swedish artist Michael Johansson, Tetris also seems to have instilled a love of organization. Johansson’s Tetris-like organizational art pieces are fun and satisfying in that everything-in-its-place kind of way.
Johansson collects used objects which have already enjoyed a long life and turns them into larger-than-life sculptures. He seems to have a magical sense of space, fitting items of different sizes and shapes perfectly into doorways, windows, and all types of unlikely spaces.
Because the objects are old and show some signs of wear, Johansson believes that his art gives them a new past – a “fake history.” He lovingly crafts these combinations of (usually) unrelated items into sculptures that rely not only on the skill of the artist, but also the size, shape and color of the objects themselves.
Without the whole, each individual part of these sculptures would not make sense as art. And like Tetris, it is the coming together of many pieces that really makes the projects fun. One can step back and look at the amazing tableau of these combined objects or step closer to appreciate each individual object. Either way, Johansson’s real-life Tetris leaves us all feeling like winners.
