STATEMENT Home Depot Home is an evolving body of work consisting of sculptures and large scale color photographs that document them made and shot in Home Depot Stores. The Home Depot store presents to the public a set of standard materials for creating the infrastructure and look of its surrounding environment. Through focused intention I build sculptures using a limited palette of concrete blocks, pavers, and patio stones. Upon arriving at a Home Depot store, I peruse the outdoor building center in the gardening department to select a concrete block for the construction. The selection is based first on an objective criterion, availability, and secondly on the subjective: what moves me at that moment. The material, shape, color, size and surface of the blocks imbue them with much intrinsic beauty. The construction process begins as I stack blocks in the aisle. People often stop and ask about the work. Conversations ensue. Sometimes customers make comments or ask questions and other times I eavesdrop on people nearby. After building a sculpture, I take photographs of it. The sculpture is dismantled within hours, as per store policy, and the photographs, which provide evidence of the action taken, become the work. The blocks used to build the piece are returned to their shelves, changed by their inclusion in an art action. Customers pick them up for purchase, and incorporate them into their homes and gardens. The blocks I’ve touched might go into a patio or end up in dozens of yards, thus transforming the surrounding landscape. |