Office Supplies as Art (Staples)

Every so often we come across somebody else who finds somebody else that links them to some great artwork created using office supplies.  While it is very common to make great pieces of artwork using pencils, pens, or markers it takes a certain different kind of creative spark to create artwork using a wholly different medium.   In the case of these two artists they have chosen to create fairly common pieces of art, but made them interesting by choosing a large scale and an odd medium.

Today we have a piece from the French artist Baptiste Debombourg called Aggravure with two individual parts "Air Force One" and "Air Force Two".  As near as I can tell Aggravure is a completely made-up word by combining the French word for staples (agrafes) with the French word for engraving (gravure) and essentially creating a word that means staple-engraving.  You can visit the link above to view the artists page and read their take on the piece, but be warned that the English isn't great.  To me it is the classical artistic take on contrast by creating flowing, flying images of humans (a very organic subject with a lot of movement) by tacking staples to a wall (a harsh metallic, immovable medium).

The artist claims that 35,000 staples were used in the creation of these pieces, and we have no reason to doubt them.  A standard box of staples has 5,000 staples so you wouldn't even need to buy them in bulk, and at the end of the day, it is probably even cheaper than the cost to paint them.  If you wanted to really one up the Aggravure piece and create your own Staple encrusted Sistine Chapel you can save money buy buying in bulk.  If you buy 200 or more boxes of staples you can get a bulk discount and really show everybody that you not only know how to create massive art, but you know how to save money.

Buy Staples in Bulk

Assuming that you do want to purchase 200 Boxes of staples and get the bulk discount, that's 3,500 staples in each box so you'll have 700,000 staples.  So if you use all those staples you will be guaranteed that your unique foray into the world of art will automatically be 20 times better than the Aggravure.