Out of Order, Sculpture in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, GB
Out of Order is a public sculpture on Old London Road in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, made from a series of real red British telephone boxes. The boxes lean against one another at varying angles, forming a curving line where one box stands upright and the others tilt progressively until the last one nearly touches the ground.
David Mach created the sculpture in 1989 as a proposal for public art, assembling real telephone boxes into a new form. At that time, these red boxes were still a normal part of British street life, long before mobile phones made them largely disappear.
The sculpture sits on Old London Road and is woven into the daily movement of people passing through the area. The red telephone boxes are a familiar British symbol, and seeing them arranged at tilting angles gives that familiarity a sudden jolt.
The sculpture stands on Old London Road and is freely accessible at any time, allowing visitors to walk around it from every angle. Stepping back a little gives the best view of the full curve of the boxes.
The sculpture gives the impression that the boxes are caught mid-fall, but they are solidly fixed and have not moved since they were installed. The title Out of Order works as a double meaning: it refers both to a broken telephone and to the disorder of the tilting arrangement itself.
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