Volume Study: Living Room 2005
altered found objects, (installation) dimensions variable
A seemingly serene living room scene is oddly disrupted when it is discovered that the couch has been cut, leaving only a barely recognizable scrap behind. Everything else seems to be in order. A set of 4 wall frames house portraits of family members. A small television stand supports a thirteen-inch monitor with poor reception. The monitor continuously plays indiscernible static with its audible low hum creating a white noise backdrop for the piece. A small coffee table containing a partially consumed soft drink, a television remote, a textbook, and arithmetic problems in a notepad, sits at a comfortable distance from the entertainment center.
Using volume to link consumer products to our immediate materiality suggests that, on one calculable level, we are of no greater importance than an object. The volumetric pieces are the realization of our existence in actuality being nothing more than a limited amount of physical space. Employing an individual or group as a unit of measurement removes self-realization and levels the relationship between body and surroundings. I have presented this concept by recreating my exact volume in everyday objects. If one were to add the specific volume of all objects contained in this scenario, the space occupied would amount to 4,851 cubic inches (my total volume that day.) All calculations are subtly involved in the aesthetics of the piece for the viewer to discover. The quantity of the body and of the functional object are equally re-contextualized as space occupied. Through the reduction of an individual’s existence to an ascertainable numerical value, a direct convincing relationship can be drawn between oneself and the objects one depends upon.