Aspirational Instruments, 2019
Wellness objects mediate transitions between constructed outer and inner worlds. Plastic bags and straws are vessels that carry nourishment from store to home and liquid from bottles into body. Previously passively accepted and quickly discarded, they are now chosen, tenderly washed and safely stored. Is curating and caring for these objects sympathetically linked with an ongoing creation of and caring for oneself? What traces are left by thousands of impressions of lips on reusable straws and palms on silicone heat shields? What intangible desires do these objects come to contain?
If single-use plastics are shed skins, then reusable objects might have agency beyond abjection. Instead of a breakdown between self and other, they are extensions of self that hybridize aesthetics, form, function, and material immortality beyond the fragility of flesh. Reconfigured and assembled into percussion instruments, these objects can sound in alarm, celebration, harmony, and cacophony.
Sustainable Triangle; Reusable Chime; Biodegradable Tambourine; stainless steel drinking straws, cleaning brush, complimentary shopping bag, wood, metal, rope, thread, musicians