Once
All objects, hooks included, exist on timelines that we dictate. We delineate the beginning, the middle and the end of an object's lifespan by our use patterns, which are driven by the functional and emotional parameters that we set. To reference Marcel Duchamp's idea of the host + the guest = the ghost, this exploration attempts to understand hook by examining the systems of trade that exist around our use of this ubiquitous object. In this particular exploration, wall hooks served as central starting point; the wall hosts the hook, which is a guest of the wall, and the ghosts left behind are the voids created by this temporary exchange.
'Where hook once was...' posits that the ghosts of the wall/hook exchange are as much as part of our experience of hook as the positive object itself. In order to expand our understanding and experience of hook, we need also to experience the end of the hook timeline that we dictated. We may remove the hook, but there remains still a record of its lifetime embedded in the wall. It is within these disregarded ghosts that alternative narratives or experiences might unfold. Like evidence left behind, these voids attempt to reveal the essential idea that hook is not an object, but rather, it is several objects and several instances linked together on a timeline of use to cumulate into our experience of hook. Hook is not just the hook, but it is also the wall, the installation, the use and finally, the footprint.
The castings of hook voids include footprints from the installation of coat hooks, paintings, shelves, robe hooks, papers, frames and plants. They are categorized respectively from left to right as: Drywall Anchors (removed); Drywall Anchors (remaining); Screws; Pegs; Nails (large); Through-holes; Nails (small); and Tacks.
Michelle currently practices design, sculpture and illustration. She splits her free time between eating new things and looking at sloths.
Nails (small)
Screws
Drywall Anchors (remaining)
Pegs
