Ten 20 X 20-inch inkjet prints (from 6 X 6-cm film negatives).
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In Making Room, as in Households and Iron Mountain, I I depict an aspect of the urban homestead and invite a questioning of ownership: how may we be known through how we live? I look at aspects of American middle-class life that haven't changed much over a century and the greater force exerted by the past over the present and the future. How are we defined and confined by what we keep?
The story behind Making Room follows.
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In 2010, my mother died. As the last living member of my family, it fell to me to clear out the cluttered 1,200-square-foot rent-controlled apartment where I grew up and my parents had lived for 40 years. The process would take three months. During that time of work and grief, I also had to live there. I documented the process of making room for me at 5E.
After giving away thousands of pounds of belongings, I moved the remaining 4,000 pounds to a San Francisco storage space. Slowly, I made room to bring those objects into my world: a painting, a clock, a lamp. I documented that too.
Apartment 5E was since sold and its walls demolished by a new owner. The objects and these pictures are all that remains.
In 2010, my mother died. As the last living member of my family, it fell to me to clear out the cluttered 1,200-square-foot rent-controlled apartment where I grew up and my parents had lived for 40 years. The process would take three months. During that time of work and grief, I also had to live there. I documented the process of making room for me at 5E.
After giving away thousands of pounds of belongings, I moved the remaining 4,000 pounds to a San Francisco storage space. Slowly, I made room to bring those objects into my world: a painting, a clock, a lamp. I documented that too.
Apartment 5E was since sold and its walls demolished by a new owner. The objects and these pictures are all that remains.