about "Disassembled Couch"

"We need to become more materialistic to become less materialistic." -Linda Weintraub

Art, like our trash, is only so when it is properly or improperly in or out of context. As art's practice is often concerned with the manipulation of materials, it is the perfect platform for considering the extent of our materials' supply on the planet.

Coinciding with these views of art, in my work I take on large-scale experiments in processing and production of a mass of materials that are either my own belongings or a found object. I acknowledge its need to occupy a physical space and the potential burden belongings can be, and take responsibility for the materials "off someone else's hands". With this as its assignment, my work offers new perceptions of, and relationships with, our constructed environment.

In my current work I am steward of an unwanted couch with a foldout bed, having invested myself in its disassembly and complete repurposing into multiple functional containers, such as bags, boxes and a cabinet. I have conducted an inventory of the couch's contents, measuring the quantity of each an learning its name. A color catalog of these materials is the result. The containers are sold at a non-subsidized price according to the real cost of their making in time. Accompanying the sale of a container, each "collector" signs a contract for the responsible ownership of the container since its initial dispersal.

I believe that in doing this I am taking responsibility for the future destination of this mass of diverse materials by keeping them in circulation, and above ground and out of the water. By reorganizing the large couch into smaller desirable quantities, the materials "take care of themselves" and can, as containers, further organize other materials. The embodiment of potential, they are a means for new content, though they are content. These also operate s three-dimensional frames, outlining a negative space and, as objects in a domestic collection, they serve as physical reminders that we, as part of the human race no longer have the luxury of making our unwanted items simply disappear.