Memento

Abandon. Like shedding skin, these objects have been consumed, and expelled. The difference these objects have been shed in public spaces, not discarded discreetly in the home, or receptacle rather on the street in full view. Waste is an aspect of everyday life, ignored by a society that seems focused on the next best thing. The object was once desired, then fulfilled a purpose only to be cast aside for the new and the better. These objects take on a new meaning while they lay in the street and on the side walk.

Documenting the abandoned trash in public spaces becomes evidence of the value system of commodity culture. The photographs of Memento record and display the failure of the items ability to sustain the desire of the former owner, and act as record of a very flawed system and class structure. Representations of trash, buildings, and lost objects fill in for the people and community that discarded them. Considered “ugly” work, these images portray an aspect of the everyday that is often ignored, or tuned out, focusing on the ostentation of commerce. The everyday experience then becomes tantamount to the objects displaced from purpose. The system that drives all to consume all as means for identity.