Monthly Statement:
September 2005
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.

During September I subversively gathered dust from two places:

The first site was Mission San Xavier del Bac on the San Xavier Indian Reservation in southern Arizona. This is a beautiful old mission that is still used for regular catholic services. I felt strange, admittedly a little blasphemous, going there with the purpose of collecting dust and thought my intentions would somehow offend someone. The mission was very clean as it took sometime to find dust behind two different pews. I found two clumps; one contained a curiously long gray hair and the other contained a tiny bird feather.

The second site was Bally Total Fitness in Tucson. This is my regular gym where I exercise. I happened to notice a crop of dust bunnies under a group of leg exercise machines and did my best, fake need-to-tie-my-shoe posturing to pocket the accumulate. This particular dust clump is very robust compared to others.

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.

Contact: sekondsight@yahoo.com