Unattended Baggage II | Backpacks, Timers, Accelerometers, Rechargeable Battery Packs | 2018 - 2020

The timers on these backpacks count up from 0 to 100 days, only reseting back to 0 when the specific backpack is moved or its battery dies. Their functions as timers allows these objects to keep track of their exact time in a specific location - time x space. I am very interested in the power stored in a sitting objects ability to actively claim space. From the personal (physical) baggage that we keep around us, to the public monuments that never change - from state capitol buildings to the national borders - our concepts of history, and the stories we remember, are largely influenced by the things that are preserved, maintained, unaltered, or allowed to remain still. These things that claim space become ‘natural’ over time, to the point where we can no longer even recognize their potential to change.

I have been told that these objects are somewhat terrifying; and I agree, change can be very scary. In fact, those moments when the bubble bursts, time resets, or things explode, often reign as large in our collective/collected (passed down) memories as any monument might. I think one reason these moments - both large and small - of sudden change can feel so violent at times, is because of the way we are lulled into a comfortable sense of stagnant time, by those things that never move. Aware of these various temporal landscapes, these sculptures sit, collect time, and remind us that change can happen in an instant.

This series of sculptures was created in collaboration with my friend, an artist and computer scientist, Jack Doerner.