Domestic Incidents

Art Collection OCT 2013 27 Artworks

To be clear, I might say “no, not that kind of domestic incident”. It couldn’t hurt to assume a peaceful subtext once in a while… could it? And yet, if I had simply said “household occurrences”, would the spectre of violence still surface in my subconscious? While law enforcement continues to have a monopoly on these terms, I’ll go on wondering. In what kinds of inequalities do I remain complicit? What arrangements of power are delineated in arrangements of countertop grime? Can the penance of housework ever be enough? When insects dehydrate and die in lampshades, do we merely pity their lust for heat and light? Is the swirling decor on this decanter nothing but a coffee stain? If we reduce it all to nothing buttery, then what will we make of last night’s spaghetti? It was, after all, buttery enough: sufficiently greased to grace the communal pasta pot with VanGoghian swirls. And isn’t that just it? For the opportunities of this eye-spy reversal, wherein a shattered light bulb’s inner silica dust self-organizes into glacial majesty, I have nothing but gratefulness. Once you’ve seen impossible things, you come to expect them: and then you act as if there’s nothing desperate about a putty knife wedged in a dried-out mass of plaster. Via this “as if”, I’m compelled to remain in touch with the weight of moldy shower curtains and worn shoes. The effort is a scraping, painstaking tedium: but it lives. And it’s not the only (mel)odious ritual on the radar. Cracks under the towel rack reminisce of daily bathroom baptisms, nodding dryly at the real gift of this hinted incarnation: an ancient commitment to come clean.

  • Daw Sust
    October 15, 2013
    Sawdust, recounting its own origins story.
  • Domestic Incidents
    October 2, 2013
    Bacon grease
  • Glue and Cardboard
    October 1, 2013
    Glue on cardboard box; torn fibers. (light)
  • Firepit
    October 1, 2013
    Containing the deconstructed remnants of what was fated not to make the move with...
  • Boxen Crop
    October 1, 2013
    Glue on cardboard box; torn fibers. (dark)
  • Ice Ice Baby
    October 1, 2013
    Freezing rain engaged in arborescent dance moves. To be clear: what was wrapped around...
  • Hung
    September 21, 2013
    Towel hooks a on bathroom door imply the presence of humans (and their rituals...
  • Spaghetti Song
    September 17, 2013
    Internals of a spaghetti pot, post nourishment.
  • Tim's Shoes
    September 3, 2013
    Or, if you prefer, slippers. But not dance slippers, necessarily.
  • Afterglow
    July 17, 2013
    Partially shattered incandescent light bulb.
  • Silica
    July 17, 2013
    Silica dust on shattered light bulb, arranged by apparently self-organizing principle into glacier-like semblances.
  • Shower Curtain Mold
    July 17, 2013
    You know how shower curtains have those magnets embedded in them, as a way...
  • Rapturous Joy
    July 11, 2013
    Cracks in the surface of the soot coated underside of a barbecue lid.
  • Tapestry
    July 5, 2013
    Couch liner from the couch of Gilda Stefani.
  • Arm Wrest
    July 5, 2013
    Wooden sofa armrest with shellac, in or near fire.
  • Carafe (reprise)
    June 18, 2013
    Inside of coffee decanter, with apparent effects of boiling and/or baking.
  • Spring Chicken
    May 3, 2013
    Crop of deceased baby bird immersed in water.
  • Compound
    March 20, 2013
    Putty knife, stuck in dried plaster pail, with sunlit underglow; digitally superimposed into stove...
  • Brycework
    February 27, 2013
    Floorboards at you me gallery, 330 James Street North
  • ASUS Dusty
    February 25, 2013
    Dust on laptop screen, with imprinted keyboard pattern.