Tea Party 1972

Bas Jan Ader made this photograph, titled "Tea Party", using a cardboard box, a branch, and what appears to be a full tea service. The box, likely sourced from everyday life and mass production, is upended and precariously held aloft by a simple stick. This crude structure contrasts sharply with the refined scene it shelters: Ader himself, dressed in a suit, enjoying tea. The juxtaposition of the mundane cardboard and the genteel tea party creates a deliberate tension, highlighting the absurdity of the situation. This image also encourages us to think about how work and class appear in it: here is this artist, in the setting of a forest, creating a parody or a humorous critique, through a photograph. By drawing attention to these materials and the act of making, Ader challenges traditional distinctions between fine art and everyday experience.