The Memory of Things

Small plywood signs, 2-5 inches across, on wooden dowels one to four feet high are emblazoned with the text “Forget I’m a tree.” This work imagines that materials might have consciousness, and might remember their origins. The language on the signs is doomed to failure, reminding you of what it purports to want you to forget. This malfunction is a ghostly after-image of the hyper-functionality of systems of production that transform the natural world into raw materials.