In a letter of 16 July 2002 to Tate, Shozo Shimamoto explained that he devised Holes, 1953, when he got hold of some silver paper and started ‘playing around with a hole punch’ in his studio in Nishinomiya City, Japan. At that time the artist was making other works with the same title (see, for instance, Holes, 1954, Tate T07897). To make this work, foil sweet wrappers were perforated with a hole punch and pasted on a sheet of plywood painted black; a wash of black ink was then thinly wiped over the surface.
Inspired by a true story, Invincible recounts the last 48 hours in the life of Marc-Antoine Bernier, a 14-year-old boy on a desperate quest for freedom.