2008
Mixed Media
8’x12’x11′
My original concept for this installation was to create a portrait of an archetypical nonprofit board, each figure bringing their own gifts and challenges to the table. Conclave was to be a celebration of those unique personalities coming together for a common goal; a celebration of human connectivity, by utilizing our discarded objects in a retroactively Lacanian manner. However, upon first installing the piece and reflecting on it in a formal context, to my surprise it is in fact a self-portrait. This realization made my process all the more compelling form, as I reach out to and gathered pieces from my local community to piece together my deconstructed self… Please read below for my process.
Assembling recycled objects to create my pieces, gives me the opportunity to appreciate the beauty of the objects. Not so much for their original functions or intended appearances, but for their current shapes, textures, colors, all the marks of their histories, and the patina of use. I present this form of beauty to highlight the undervalued and often discarded aspects of our own lives and the importance of the idea of the phoenix. Our feeling of connectedness, of being a valued member of a group kindles the rebirth in ourselves. By sharing the objects as artworks, I try to impart that experience with the audience (often as an undertone), but much more obviously to the generous people that help me gather the objects.
To collect the objects for this installation, I posted a “wanted” ad on craigslist.org and also a “plea for random junk” on my Facebook “Status Updates”. This created an opportunity to personally connect with people to gather the objects. For the people that responded to the craigslist ad, this created the opportunity for me to connect with folks I would not otherwise meet. It also strengthened the ties to my friends that responded from Facebook.
The object becomes what architects call, a triangulation. This is the concept that an object, such as say a fountain, can bring strangers together, which in turn develops community. First I make the request. Then the person who responds to the request has to stop and think about the objects that they have in a different way than they probably had before. This is my favorite part!… Then, they have to make a leap of consciousness about the object. The leap from having a neat looking, but otherwise useless object, an object that could very well end up in a landfill, to making a choice that it could have a new mode of usefulness as art. By choosing this rebirth for the object, they become an art maker, a curator of the project’s parts, if you will.
Then the really fun part… I get to hear their stories about the objects. How they came to have them and their history with the object. There is a true tenderness toward the objects at points in these conversations that is endearing and very human. I then share the object’s future and try to describe the installation that it will be a part of. I thank them for their generosity. I get to make a personal connection that is of genuine sharing. This process is a vital part of my art. The final artifact of these unifying meetings is Conclave.
