YARD SALE

3rd St. Commons Garage, Columbus, OH, USA

“Capitalism survives by forcing the majority, whom it exploits, to define their own interests as narrowly as possible. […] Today in the developed countries it is being achieved by imposing a false standard of what is and what is not desirable.”

—John Berger, Ways of Seeing, 1972

During my time as Artist-In-Residence in Columbus, Ohio, I looked into examining the city through multiple perspectives: at the street-level, from disposed objects, and as a test market.

In relation to the market aspect, I attended the Retail Rethought conference where “better ties to the customers” and “best accessibility of products” were main topics of discussion. Of particular interest was the debate surrounding brick and mortar stores, or why to keep a walk-in store at all, if only the e-commerce counts for profit? I sought out discussions about social responsibility, sustainability and environmentally-conscious product management – shopping as a possibility to meet and share a situation and sense of the world outside of a solemn, internet-based bubble.

My thoughts as an artist materialize in sculptural forms, collaged imagery, installations, and performative gestures captured as video. YARD SALE consists of commonplace materials and environments experienced in daily life. Utility street markings are reinterrpretated as a catalog of sprayed symbols on paper, the human desire for de-cluttering is consolidated into whimsical collages, and found materials such as plastic, wood, rubber, metal, bark and leaves are assembled in odd configurations.

Within my work, as in life, form does not always follow function, but is rather interrupted by the unexpected and again cobbled together. Though nothing is malicious, a bit of mischievous play is utilized as an approach to greater topics and commentaries imbued with social, political, and economic complexities. The resulting works are a coping mechanism for aspects or forces difficult to understand, explain, or control in the otherwise banality of daily existence. Don’t take things for granted – everything is changing all the time, hopefully for the better.

—Elizabeth Gerdeman (2019)