THE DUMPSTER PROJECT: component

Showing posts with label component. Show all posts

CUT THIS OUT

3.6 in diameter x .4 cm
This is from the spout of a can of Danish oil. I kept it because it seemed like handy advice to have in tangible form.

COY BACON CARD

6.4 x 8.9 cm

Coquettish Porcine is his christian name.

17.8 x 6.5 x 5 cm
One day in 1999 or 2000, I went to Flugmacher's apartment. There was a banjo sitting in the corner and I said 'nice banjo'. Flug said 'I found it in a dumpster, you want it?'.
The crappy banjo that Flugmacher gave me has been replaced, its parts parceled into several art projects. This arm rest is almost all that remains of the instrument that was the impetus to my lifelong dedication to making music: a form of expression I totally suck at, but find impossible to abandon.

CHALK BOARD HINGE

7 x 9.4 x 8.3 cm
In 1997 I directed a promotional commercial where I animated on a chalkboard. At the end of the shoot, I got to keep the chalkboard. It is amazing how much dust using a chalkboard generates inside a small apartment. When I moved to Brooklyn in 2002, the slate was relegated to our roof deck where we thought it would host civilized games of pictionary accompanied by moderately priced wine. Instead it fell victim to the elements rather quickly. Shortly thereafter I removed the hinges. To use. For something.

SWEET TARTS

6.1 x 3.2 x .06 cm

From 1995 until 2000 I lived at 81 Second avenue in the East Village with Richard Egan. One Halloween, his mom sent him an enormous bag of sweet-tarts. Months later, Rich and I began planting the individual packages amidst each other's personal effects: in a shoe or pinned inside the hem of one's pants. An undeclared war had organically formed. This is the last known munition of that war.

MAN DOLL HEAD or KEN HEAD

3.7 x 2.9 x 4.2 cm

I used to share my studio with Jonny Mangion, schoolteacher, stuffmaker, all around A+ human. When he left the studio, he also left this behind. I love it.

GOLKAR FLYER

16.3 x 21.3 x .01 cm

In 1997, I went to Indonesia. They were in the middle of an election. This is a pamphlet promoting General Suharto's party, the-then-long-reigning semi-benevolent dictatorship (Golongan Karya, referred to as 'Golkar'). Though his particular form of rule promoted a questionable civil liberty policy at best, his party did employ some very handsome graphic design.

FRIEDA BOOT

13.8 x 6.4 x 6.9 cm
This was my daughter Frieda's first real pair of shoes. This was the pair of shoes she learned to actually walk and run and fall in.

SUPER RECORDING

10 x 6.4 x 1.1 cm

My oldest friend is a Persian guy named Kacy. He and I lived together for a while around 2001. One day he was throwing stuff out and I saw this tape and felt compelled to keep it. I think the writing is Farsi, since Kacy is from Iran, but it might be Arabic. I'd know it if I heard it spoken, but can't decipher by sight. My favorite part is what it says on the reverse side: in san-serif gothic mixed case, as kind of an illustration of the inflection one would be expecting, 'SUPER Recording.'

FREE WHOPPER COUPON

5.5 x 8.9 x .07 cm

There is no expiration date on this certificate. It was in my wallet for about 6 years, then on my desk (where the paint came from) for another 3. My plan was to hold onto it until a Whopper cost $62. It's about as close to a 401(k) as I've come.

LOGGERS PLAY-DAY PIN

4.3 in diameter x 0.3 cm

Sorry, this is a long one.

In 1998, I traveled across this country by car. I traveled with Daryl, and it took us about a month. We gave structure to our venture by investigating men and women who risk their lives for a living: coal miners in West Virginia; oil rig workers in Louisiana; loggers in Washington State. Daryl wrote, I took pictures.

We rolled into Hoquiam and Aberdeen in Washington, sister towns hosting a Loggers Play-Day, an event that featured competitions based on logging skills. It took place in the local highschool stadium, capacity around 1000. Somehow, we worked our way onto the field, and I found myself able to photograph whatever I wanted. Everyone was quite gracious.

There was an axe toss competition, a log chopping competition, stuff like that. It was pretty badass. Also, though, kind of weird, cause here were all these skilled men exhibiting their abilities, embarking in good-natured competition; yet the framework for the whole event was based on a vocation in peril, a casualty of the decimated American logging industry.

A 'Powder Monkey' is one of the badass motherfuckers who sets explosives a hundred feet up a tree to fell it from the halfway point down.

VOLVO 240 SEAT BELT

20.1 x 5.1 x 2.7 cm

I suppose I should consider myself lucky: I have owned my dream car. It was a cornflower blue 1986 Volvo 240. After a couple of years, my mechanic told me that it was unethical of him to continue taking my money. When donated, fairly certain that it wasn't going to take on any more passengers, I cut out the seat belts. You know, to have.

SIGARETS

5.4 x 8.7 x 1.7 cm

I bought these 'siagerets' in Indonesia in 1997. That's when I visited my friend Josh and learned the phrase 'Jam Karet', which means 'Rubber Time'; things occur according to a relative schedule in Indonesia. It's like Italy, except with a more stable government.

I never did open this pack of cigarettes.