Projects

Strap-On Subwoofer (2000-2001)

This is a fiberglass speaker pod which is molded to attach to the exterior of a new model Mercedes Benz. Here I was interested in taking all of the energy generated by the commodity fetish, generally assumed to produce only social alienation, and turn it the other way toward a more socially connected situation. Cars typically create a disconnected interior space and are sort of the ultimate consumer object and the ultimate alienating and separating device. So this project turns that inside out and creates an unstructured social space out of the car with the addition of this accessory that plugs into the cigarette lighter. Like much of my work, this project gives physical/architectural manifestation to unstructured and unacknowledged activities- in this case, hanging out by a car and listening to music.

It is important to me that the craft level is pushed to the degree that the aesthetic that can be compete alongside mass produced consumer objects from Sony, Nike, or whatever. I think of projects like these as a kind of reverse ready-made. Rather than re-contextualizing consumer objects in the gallery and thus draining the accrued meaning from them, these objects have the ability to travel out of the gallery and participate in the wider culture.