I Can't Move
Martin Creed
British, born 1968
1999
Martin Creed's 1999 compact-disc I Can't Move uses the everyday format of a CD and a casual photographic cover to turn a small music release into a conceptual artwork that collapses art and life.
What hits you first is the close, slightly uncanny portrait of a smiling figure against a rough brick wall, presented in an ordinary plastic jewel case whose banality undercuts the image's intimacy.
By treating a mass-produced audio object as an artwork, Creed's piece exemplifies late‑20th‑century conceptual strategies that use ordinary media to question what counts as art and to blur the line between gallery practice and popular culture.
Medium
CD
Dimensions
cover: 4 7/8 × 5 5/8" (12.4 × 14.3 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Committee on Prints and Illustrated Books Fund
Accession
854.2013.77
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
