Under the guise of “Second Sight Art Services,” a fictitious company I created, I obtained permission to sweep the floors of carefully selected spaces. During cleaning “performances” I wore a lab coat and identity badge to create the illusion of officialdom and was accompanied by a Second Sight “worker” who photographed the cleaning process. Typically, I asked for permission to sweep a chosen site or if I found myself in a place that seemed to be an interesting opportunity for gathering dust, I then subversively gathered dust on the spot and documented the site itself. From each bag of dust I obtained I manipulated the dust bunny into different shapes and made a series of photograms using cyanotype paper. As each dust bunny assumed this pictorial form, it took on the appearance of a cloud in a deep blue sky and subtly forms a connection between a remainder of human existence and the ephemeral behavior of the weather overhead. Each series of “clouds” was then placed into a unique, handmade book made specifically for that place. I documented the dust bunnies and created the books to house the images to create a sense that the gathering of the dust had been done “properly” and “officially.” There are twenty-eight volumes and over 170 “cloud” images in the collection. Please visit
www.accumulationproject.org and click on the “dust” link for additional information about this project.
In this work I am enamored by dust as a supremely banal and exotically ordinary material. A dust bunny is a material trace of time, much like a photograph, and I enjoy examining the similarities and differences of dust from different locales (imagining what bits of history might be in each) as well as exploring its possible connection with real clouds. Clouds in the sky are created, in part, by dust from an amalgam of places and contain an impressive cross-section of human and geographic evidence. I am intrigued by the possibility that there are actually traces of human life in a cumulus cloud and that humans might directly contribute to wind patterns, the
shapes of clouds, barometric pressure and precipitation. On one level, the connection between dust bunnies and cloud prints in this project is a reiteration of what happens naturally in the atmosphere. During the Accumulation Project I was really interested in challenging myself to gather dust from a large and varied group of locations in a romantic attempt to make a record of life – of human existence – that could also suggest that the most mundane of things in the world are inextricably linked to some of the most unpredictable, phenomenal things of the world.
A comprehensive list of the origins of the dust bunnies used in Brief Notes on Existence.
Vol. 1: My home, Tucson, AZ (I have since moved from this residence)
Vol. 2: A friend’s home, Tucson, AZ
Vol. 3: Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ
Vol. 4: Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
Vol. 5: Tierra Archaeological Services, Tucson, AZ
Vol. 6: My childhood home, Cedar Rapids, IA
Vol. 7: My (former) home, Tucson, AZ (Part 2)
Vol. 8: Mission San Xavier del Bac, Southern Arizona
Vol. 9: Bally Total Fitness, Tucson, AZ
Vol. 10: Pima County Superior Courthouse, Tucson, AZ
Vol. 11: Arizona State Fair, Phoenix, AZ
Vol. 12: Judy’s Music Stop, Tucson, AZ
Vol. 13: My brother-in-law’s home on his 30th birthday, Minneapolis, MN
Volume not yet created: A friend’s home, Oxford, IA
Vol. 14: A Wild Oats Natural Foods Market, Tucson, AZ
Vol. 15: Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Texas
Vol. 16: Pima Air and Space Museum, Tucson, AZ
Vol. 17: US/Mexico International Border, Nogales, AZ
Vol. 18: National Weather Service – Southern Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Vol. 19: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Vol. 20: Along a curb near the corner of Speedway Blvd. And Treat St., Tucson, AZ
Vol. 21: The Field Museum, Chicago, IL
Vol. 22: Various tourist shops along the South Rim, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Vol. 23: Notre Dame, Paris, France
Volume not yet created: St. Sulpice, Paris, France
Volume not yet created: Palace of Versailles, France
Vol. 24: The Duomo, Florence, Italy
Vol. 25: The Pantheon, Rome Italy
Volume not yet created: San Giovanni, Rome, Italy
Vol. 26: St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, Italy
Vol. 27: Pima County Department of Environmental Quality, Tucson, AZ
Vol. 28: A UHaul moving truck, Tucson, AZ to Youngstown, OH
Volume not yet created: Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR
Volume not yet created: A friend’s belly button lint (an ongoing collection), St. Louis, MO
