The Finder
Recycled Polyethylene, Recycled Polyvinyl Chloride, Urethane, Playground Slides found around Tucson, Steel, Oak from Carlton, OSB that Darrin's neighbor wanted to get rid of, Acrylic Paint, MDF from Dumpster between Grad Lab and neighboring apartment complex, Scrap Rebar I kept from a job in Portland, Seaweed from Packaged Seaweed Snacks, Petroleum Jelly, Insulation Foam, Sports Court Tiles won on Ebay, Silicone, Palo Verde Branches, a Shark Tooth from trip to Cape Hatteras, Plastic Straws from breakroom, Plastic Handle from Mariel, Chicken Wire, Image of Hourglass Nebula, Drink Umbrella from Liam, Aloe Verde plant found in landscaper's debris pile by my old apartment, Bristlecone Pine Tree Seeds, Glass Vial with Cork Stopper, Preexisting Spiderweb, Nike Running Shoes found under a bush on Park and Helen, Penn Tennis Balls that Withers didn't use anymore, Rebar Stands, a Conus Textile Shell from Etsy, Zip Tie, a Serenity Prayer Gold Chain Necklace found on Hollywood Blvd, Driftwood from San Juan Island trip with Lyndi, Fragments of a Dinosaur Bone (Fossil Unknown) from dig site in Southern Utah, a Dry Wall Anchor, an In-N-Out French Fry from under my car's driver seat.
Dimensions Variable
2023
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The Finder is a speculative, future archeological site where objects of play and leisure are unearthed and presented in a semi-museological arrangement. The installation contains sculptures composed of preexisting, prefabricated plastic objects as well as new objects made from both fresh and recycled plastic housing materials such as seaweed, tennis shoes, steel, asphalt, or petroleum jelly. Specifically chosen found objects such as bristlecone pine seeds, a conus textile shell, a french fry, an aloe plant, and a serenity prayer gold chain necklace litter the site as well. The space is organized through rigid lines and forms, alluding to a tennis court, a garden, or a playground emphasized through added structural components such as floor tilings and modular pedestals.
This site investigates concepts of deep time, particularly non-human scales of time, to look at the possibility that plastics will not return to the earth through their chemical makeup. They are connected to human's endless persistence towards leisure and play, heightened and reframed through the artist's desires for spiritual connection stemming from his own play and meditations. They are located next to organic matter constantly existing in a state of becoming. Once staged in this immanent state of being, the plastic objects become ancestral deities witnessing the shifts that will occur over eons, observing potential futures that humans have no way of knowing or conceiving in our current position as finite ecological manipulators.