Invisible Forces, 2018 - 2020

“Invisible Forces” is an ongoing series of works based on the tradition of the paper flyer, a vernacular means of communication and exchange. The works present photographic images of things discovered on routine walks in places I live and visit, accompanied by short texts - philosophical and poetical free-association on topics reflected in the photos. The flyers, either distributed anonymously in public spaces or presented in exhibitions, incorporate their immediate surroundings, thus making them site-specific, as well as a form of urban archaeology. “Invisible Forces” reflects on how precariously we assign value, consume and discard, and ultimately, how life and death are inscribed in material culture.

“Invisible Forces” takes two forms simultaneously that respond to two different display contexts: simple paper photocopies (8.5” x 11”) that are anonymously distributed on bulletin boards as well as “unofficial” public sites; and as inkjet prints on thin aluminum sheets - the metal cut and bent to simulate the paper flyers - for exhibiting in art spaces. In both cases, the photo/texts present something discovered near to, or in the same location as their installation.

Hyperobjects for Artists
Edited by Timothy Morton and Laura Copellin with Peyton Gardner
Ballroom Marfa
https://thecreativeindependent.com/library/hyperobjects-for-artists/

I Marfa Poetry Festival
Org. by Marfa Book Company
Tim Johnson and Josh Edwards
Aug 9 - 13, 2017

Transborder Biennial / La Bienal Transfronteriza
El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso,TX & Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
June 1 - Sept 16, 2018

Open Sessions 12
The Drawing Center LAB, New York
Oct 12 - Dec 2, 2018

BAM Brooklyn
Towards a New Archaeology
Sept 13 - Jan 6, 2019

Night of Philosophy
The New School
October 5th, 2019

A limb comes up from the underbelly the way a submarine comes out of the ocean. It doesn’t go unnoticed and soon will carry back messages collected from the surface of the Earth: doodles, quick tags, incomprehensible names and made-up symbols; mundane phenomena capable of summoning the invisible forces that surrounds us.
“We see the moon only when is illuminated. Thus what we are looking at is the sun. What we think we see is very often not what we think we see. Mainly, what we see are a set of relations, always temporary, in transformation and ready to be something else.” – Inkjet print on aluminum, 20″ x 12″
“The challenge exists in embracing the forces of sympathetic attraction, going beyond basic need or survival strategy. A beautiful act of empathy, full-hearted reciprocity. Perhaps a desperate proximity, bordering on suicide.” -Inkjet print on aluminum, 10 ¾ ” x 15 ¼”
“We think of monuments as public objects that celebrate the past. Although they might function as reminders, the purpose of monuments is set in the future, perpetuating traditions and ensuring that values and civic obligations persist. In this sense, all monuments make believe.” -Inkjet print on aluminum, 10 ¾” x 14 ¾”
“Dirty snow? Let’s have a closer look at it: sand, leaves, midribs and stems, rock particles, carbon particles, soil, dust. If everything could be appreciated in its modest particularity, dirtiness would disappear and the whole world would fall neatly into place.” – Marker on photocopy, 11” x 8.5”
Text on tear-off tabs: “Windows or eyes, doors or mouths, cracks or sweat, masks or stage, coarseness or sorrow. Definitely sorrow, for the defacement has taken place. The labor of the desert: background becoming background becoming background.” – Marker on photocopy, 11″ x 14″
Text on tear-off tabs: “The craving for what we call “home” might just be a wide-spread mental delusion. You’ll recognize it as a sudden wish for a glimpse of peace that would relieve, for a second, the burden of circulating amidst so much other.” Xerox 8.5″ x 11″
Text on tear-off tabs: “A concealed archeological site in a minor narrow street is shaped like an elevated bed structure, with a cup holder on the side. Right behind it, a shiny 50’s low-rider flaunts its riches. Both artifacts represent exceptional accommodations for the human body, both altar-like vessels for sacrifices to the gods.” Xerox 8.5″ x 11″
Text on tear-off tabs: “The craving for what we call “home” might just be a wide-spread mental delusion. You’ll recognize it as a sudden wish for a glimpse of peace that would relieve, for a second, the burden of circulating amidst so much other.”
at LABagel, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Construction board in Chinatown, NY