I rather like found object projects. For years (being a runner and now a walker) along many roads....I have been interested in lost or discarded clothing. But have never pursued it deliberately. Although in my photo files I probably have (historically) a kind of assembly of photos.
I see each piece of clothing as a spur to the imagination.
Underwear of course is the most interesting since by being under wear it is more intimate. Losing a baseball cap is not as intrinsically as interesting as a bra or boxers. Or is that just me?
Where you find these things is interesting too. Along a state highway is one thing. But on a trail on a mountain is much more interesting.
For years I photographed a red scarf on a trail I hike every spring in Canada. I think someone hung it on a tree branch, perhaps the owner would see it? But they (perhaps) never did. And it gradually rotted and faded on the branch. On that same trail (but way off the trail where one might go to avoid a swampy area) I photographed a pair of mens Jordash jockey shorts draped over a bush. After four years they had melted into the landscape. Then this year, I found a really nice windbreaker under a picnic table on a remote point facing the Maine coast from the island I was on. It was there most of the spring getting washed by nature and fading a bit.
There's a place on the Sandwich Notch Road where there's a red article of clothing embedded into the gravel road. Who knows how old it could be?
It's the story with these things that's important.....how one connects them back to some version or vision of a possible reality.
Also thought a while about collecting the actual artifacts and collaging them. Your piece here made me think of that. But don't like to touch found underwear for some reason. I don't think that's just me....
This approach to
objects d'art is I think the antithesis of zillion dollar classic paintings.
