Monthly Statement:
January 2006
In the month of January I subversively gathered dust from two locations. Both dust bunnies were collected while visiting sites with some of my family in town so there is touch of tourism to this dust.

The first clump of dust comes from the Pima Air and Space Museum. This museum is a sprawling facility in Tucson very near the air force base and has many out-of-service military aircraft scattered around acres of desert land and inside a handful of hangers. Dust was somewhat allusive at the museum. I found the most amounts near WWII airplane wheels, under seating and along the bases of display cabinets. However, a small amount was found near the life-size replica of the Wright brother’s Kitty Hawk and I found none in an Air Force One that was used by both Kennedy and Johnson. This is by far the most aerodynamic dust bunny I will ever assemble together.

The second clump of dust was nervously gathered from the US Port of Entry building at US/Mexico border in Nogales. I had my “PR” folder with me at the time and was intending to ask to officially clean this site, but I completely lost my nerve. There is something about stating your country of birth to a person in uniform and thinking that they might not believe you or that somehow you appear suspicious to them that made my intended request seem secondary to regaining access to the US. Another factor to my switching to a subversive gather was witnessing two US immigration officers interrogate a Hispanic woman in a nearby room. I have a feeling it was staged as the door of the room was so perfectly left ajar, but nonetheless it swayed me to stoop down and peel a healthy clump from the edge of custodian’s broom. I found taking dust already condensed from a large broom was both not as exciting and somehow more disgusting. The body of this dust is dense and very coarse and seems to be made up of short materials as it comes apart easily. Like someone had gotten a haircut, changing their appearance, and the evidence was swept up. This dust literally straddles two countries. As I walked from the building thinking about nationality, privilege and access I passed a row of buses with “Wal-Mart” stencil-painted on the sides waiting to take legal entrants on their Sunday shopping excursions.

Process: I plan to acquire dust in two ways. Initially, I will ask for permission to sweep a chosen site and document the process. If permission is not granted or if I find myself in a place that seems to be an interesting opportunity for gathering dust, I will then obtain my accumulate in a covert fashion. This means I will inconspicuously search for dust clumps on the spot and document the site, rather than the process.

I will be gathering dust from two different places a month as my contribution to the Accumulation Project. From each bag of dust I obtain I’ll manipulate the dust bunny into different shapes and make a series of photograms on cyanotype paper. As the dust bunny assumes this new pictorial form, it takes of the appearance of a cloud in a deep blue sky and subtly forms a connection between a nuisance remainder of human existence and the ephemeral behavior of the weather overhead. Each series of “clouds” will be placed into a book that I’ve assembled specifically for that place.

Contact: sekondsight@yahoo.com