big brown bag, 1992

In this edition, Haim Steinbach integrates text and object for the first time in his practice. Borrowing the instantly recognizable slogan from the Bloomingdale’s shopping bag, he transposes its bold, rounded typography onto the wall, pairing it with a sleek black bullet trash can positioned just beneath the text. Both bag and bin are functional containers, yet through Steinbach’s precise spatial and conceptual arrangement, they become symbols – linked through their utilitarian roles and aesthetic forms. The trash can echoes the curves of the printed slogan, creating a visual and linguistic metonymy that shifts the viewer’s perception from function to form, from commodity to concept. As in much of Steinbach’s work, the installation transforms ordinary consumer objects into carriers of cultural meaning. Here, the tension between consumption and disposal, desire and waste, is rendered with minimalist clarity and subtle irony.