Monthly Statement:
July 2006

OBJECT #41
DATE SENT: July 20, 2006
SENT TO: Ellen Quinn
SENT VIA: US Postal Service

DESCRIPTION OF OBJECT: 9” x 2 1/2” x 8” diameter clear plastic bottle of spring water. A white plastic screw/pop-up cap is covered by a second, clear plastic cap. Ink stamped numbers and words appear just below the bottle neck. It reads: PRD05312006 11:10 BEST BY05312008VICT#973. A black and yellow paper label covers the mid section of the bottle 3 3/4” from the top. The label is 2 1/4” high and 8” in diameter. A yellow oval forms the central image of the bottle. On it are the words THE BLACK FACTORY and SPRING WATER. Between these words is the silhouetted image of a small building, which appears to be one room with a window. There is a large smokestack next to the building. From the smokestack is a large black form of smoke. The smoke may be abstract, but it has the appearance of two back-to-back facial profiles. The faces in the profiles seem to have their mouths wide open. On the side of the label reads the following in white print:

CONTENTS: puffy cloud flavoring, daytime,
smidgens of Michael Jackson’s thriller album
(on cassette), pinch from the bell of the washington
monument, dash of hair curler worn by andy gibb
of the bee gees, ink scraped from a word on a page
from a book on Rwandan 21st century landscape painting…
Below that, in very small white type, the following is printed:
100% Spring Water, 16.9 oz.
Sources: Roaring Spring/Eureka Springs
NYNYSHD Cert. #092, CT #678
(800) 822-2614
And in larger white type is written:

USES:
hope problem, thirst problem,
black problem, next problem…
The bottle has wave-like ridges circling its bottom portion, below the label. The bottom of the bottle is slightly concave, with a five-armed form, which divides the bottom into five triangular shapes. A #1 recycling symbol is also on the bottom of the bottle.

ORIGIN AND APPROXIMATE DATE OF POSSESSION OF OBJECT: Purchased for $5 from a mobile art van created by William Pope L. in July 2006. The van was part of an art event coordinated by the Jersey City Museum and was parked on Newark Avenue in downtown Jersey City.

MOST RECENT LOCATION OF OBJECT: On the third shelf from the top of a tall bookshelf in the northeast corner of my studio, to the right of the exit door.

RELATION OF OBJECT TO RECIPIENT: Ellen Quinn, my friend and colleague, has spoken often of William Pope L. They attended graduate school together at Rutgers, New Brunswick. William is a video, performance and installation artist who has showed his work fairly extensively. The Black Factory van, which was parked for a day on Newark Avenue in downtown Jersey City, was one such project. It included objects, images, and products that referenced African-American culture. I cannot exactly remember much of what the installation included, or even the precise significance of the project, though I do remember that there were a number of items for sale and the proceeds were going to a charity. The water I purchased was the cheapest item for sale. When I bought it, I thought immediately of Ellen and her connection to William. But the stronger relation that this object bears to Ellen is the idea of making an art piece from a bottle of water, of using water in and of itself as an art medium. This is because Ellen’s approach to making art is grounded in conceptualism, and in part, to pay attention to that which is often overlooked, of dealing with the lost objects, places, and ideas that make up the periphery of our consciousness. Ellen, it seems to me, works like an alchemist, transforming the mundane to something of value, beauty, and mystery. It struck me that Ellen’s ability to see and transform is both metaphorical and factual in relation to art making, to relationships, to writing, to the act of living. Water, obviously, is the most essential of elements. Its uses infinite, its pleasure profound, its value is priceless. It takes artists, though, to point once again to the obvious, to remind us where our feet our, of which space we occupy. Ellen and William Pope L. both do that. My hope is that Ellen will continue the collaboration that he started and that I coaxed along by sending this to her.

RESPONSE OF RECIPIENT:

DATE OF RESPONSE:

Process: My plan is to de-accumulate objects I now own during the course of the exhibition year. I will photograph the selected object then send the object with a letter to a person who has some relationship to the object or whom I think might be interested in the object. The letter will discuss the project and tell the receiver they can keep the object, destroy it, give it away, recycle it or anything else they choose. I will ask them to document it in the place they now have it and send their image and/or written description back to me of what they did with it and where it is. I plan on de-accumulating an average of one object per week. The new images/descriptions will be placed in a plastic folder and exhibited along with a photograph of the object as it was in my possession.