The smallest details sometimes means everything.
A galaxy could be the head of a pin.
End of the Line is a non-narrative true story of two disparate families that have both reached their final conclusion. There are two stories, one told in images, the other in text. The images, found in a Florida dumpster, show a wealthy family that traveled the world. No names were connected with them, so their importance and meaning have been lost. The text, lifted from letters, documents, articles, and other forms of communication, is from my father's side of the family. As a childless only child of an only child, the family tree ends with me. Both families' histories are soon to be lost in obscurity. This project is an attempt to graft two families' histories together with moments that are shared and that contrast to connect them to some universal truth that will outlive me.
The reliability of memory is elusive. Sometimes, the passage of time clouds its clarity. Sometimes we believe we remember but make the wrong connections. Both of my grandmothers suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease and my art mentor had a brain injury that destroyed his short term memory. All three struggled mightily
with their own minds, frustrated because what they thought they knoew was not true. Frustrated also because they could not conjure the memory they knew should be there.
This project is about memory as it disintegrates and fractures, achieved through the destruction of someone’s vacation slides from the 50’s and 60’s. I found these slides in a dumpster, ten thousand in all, documenting travels all over the globe. They were someone’s life memories, now obscured, abstracted, and forever gone.
I invented a process to alter these 35mm color slides, then scanned them in high resolution and printed them on Duratrans (translucent) paper with archival inkjet inks. They are mounted with plexiglass on an LED light box I designed and sell.
I have been taking as many snapshots of red pants as I can find since 2003. There are over 800 in my collection.
Sports are typically about superstars, records and the pursuit of championships. It is a massive media franchise that sells scandal, statistics and hope and it is one-dimensional in its singular pursuit glory.
This work is not about that. For two seasons, I followed the Hamtramck High School football team. When I started the project, the team had not won a game in five years, and at their first practice only eight players showed up.
“Anonymous” is part sculpture, part communication device. It is made of bent and rolled steel pipe winding haphazardly like a nest. The pipes intertwine to make it difficult to follow its path. At each end is a mouthpiece/listening device. The public is invited to talk and listen, although they will not be sure who is on the other end. Sound travels surprisingly well, where even a light whisper can be heard and a puff of air can be felt.
What will people say when they are not sure who is listening?
