Monthly Statement:
December 2005
December was a short month because of the holidays and the first accumulation project so we only met once. We went through two jam packed closets in the hallway. We emptied them completely. Some shelves were filled with empty boxes of all sizes that were just taking up space. We set one aside for products and cleaning supplies, freeing up the other to unpack sheets, towels, and blankets. Although she’s the only person who lives in the apartment, there are enough sheets and towels to open up a hotel. Despite this extensive collection, she has been washing and reusing the same set of sheets and same towel set for years – partly because she wasn’t able to access the other ones. I convinced her to take the threadbare towels she’s been using over and over again and use them as rags and to use another set, still not brand new but in much better condition to put into the bathroom.

As part of the collection, she has a towel set that her mother had given her as a child and a bath towel she had sewn together out of three smaller towels from when she studied abroad in the 70’s. I am also uncertain about what to do with these sentimental things. There is definitely too much but I would have a hard time getting rid of objects that bring back such vivid memories – personal artifacts. So except for one large and one small towel, the towels that became rags, and a few washcloths that she was willing to part with – we organized, folded and stacked all the towels, sheets and blankets and put them into the linen closet.

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.