Monthly Statement:
January 2006
Due to the holidays and New Year, we had a break from our regular every other week meeting schedule. After a four-week hiatus, there was some catching up to do, clearing off the table and couch, and making some more space on the kitchen floor. My collaborator admitted that she tidies up in preparation for my visits, at least the areas we already cleaned. All in all, the place is looking better – there are still many islands of clutter, but in general the paths are constantly expanding, making the islands of accumulation more manageable.

This month we focused on the bedroom. Back in October when we sorted through her clothes there were still some things, such as worn and laundered pantyhose, that we had left in bags to be looked through later. These bags were still stacked near the bed and had started to collect dust. She put away some more towels and blankets into the recently organized linen closet and then swept up some of the dust that had accumulated under the bed and on the floor. Meanwhile, I sorted through hundreds of pairs of pantyhose. I stretched each pair over my arm checking for runs and separated those that could be worn again from those with holes. I came across pairs that had runs sewn up and other pantyhose with one leg cut off. The rationale behind this she said was that if you have a pair of pantyhose and one leg has a run and the other is good, you could combine one good leg from one good leg on another pair to create a new good pair. I gave her a dismayed and confused look. Many stories surfaced… She said pantyhose were a relatively recent invention and remembered back to seventh and eighth grades when for special occasions they would wear white cotton garters with four clips that would hold up thigh high stockings. Later in college she did a study abroad program in then communist Poland, and remembered women at booths in the department stores repairing pantyhose with a special tool to loop the torn strands. The women stretched the pantyhose over their arms, like I was doing, counting the runs (they would charge per run.)

All of these pantyhose sat in various plastic bags with the intention of wearing them again. In reality, she admitted, she would reach for a pair in the morning and get extremely frustrated after trying on four pairs with runs. By then, running late, she would reach for a new package of pantyhose. By the end of our workday, we sorted through all of the pantyhose kept those that were still wearable on hand for her to wear and removed all those that have runs or only one leg.

Follow up note: My collaborator had a medical check up and blood tests and found out that she has high cholesterol. There are no longer any Haagen-Dazs containers in the freezer..

Process:
My interest in the accumulation project began with a close individual, an obsessive hoarder, who is emerging from a decade long depression. I am the only other person who has been inside of the apartment since she moved in. The apartment is completely filled, waist-high with accumulation. There are stacks and piles of everything imaginable: unread New York Times newspapers dating back to 1997, hundreds of Penny Saver circulars, yogurt lids, and soda bottle caps. Nothing has been thrown away in years.

There are several pathways to navigate through the clutter in her apartment, though you have to move very carefully so as not to start a landslide. One path goes from the front door to the only empty chair; another goes past the refrigerator to the kitchen sink; one path leads through the hallway into the bedroom to the bed; another forks off to the bathroom. Despite all of the clutter, she is in fact a minimalist at heart, only utilizing the bare minimum in the apartment. I believe she is at point in her life when she can finally let go of all of this accumulation and move on.

Throughout the duration of the accumulation project (one year), I will visit this person in her apartment to help clear out all that she has been accumulating for years. I will collect some of the items we would otherwise discard and save them as documents of her accumulation. I will select things that are most striking by the quantity of the objects or by the nature of the objects themselves and their visual appeal.

As we work together to empty out her space, I will document the changing landscape of her apartment through photographs. The process of sifting through the clutter is like an archeological excavation: the various layers of debris correspond with different times in her past. For the two “accumulation project” exhibitions, I will show both the physical documents of the accumulation as well as the photographs of the process of de-accumulation in the apartment. This project is a social sculpture that involves the interaction between the obsessive collector and myself to create a positive change in her life and in her space through emptying the clutter she’s been accumulating for years.

My project explores the extreme case of accumulation in our disposable, consumerist society. I understand the impulse to save, reuse and recycle - however the rate of consumption of objects of planned obsolescence is significantly faster than the rate of reusing or creative ideas for reuse.