Artist: Josh Tonsfeldt
Venue: And Now, Dallas, US
Date: April 29 – May 27, 2017
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and And Now, Dallas
My brother Justin has developed a small business of buying and selling salvaged goods. He acquires his merchandise through a company that auctions cargo written off as lost or damaged by UPS. Some of these items he resells through Ebay, Facebook, and other web based outlets. What doesn’t sell typically collects in the barns around my mother’s home. A truckload of these materials now occupy the gallery’s storefront space. This exhibition, made in collaboration with Yonatan Zonszein, is a further liquidation of these goods, and a consideration of their status in shifting contexts.
Aside from a set of foam play stairs which we found to be infested with ants, most everything we have transported is present. Some objects are bound up in resin, some arranged corresponding to formal or functional affinities. Others have been untouched or left in place in the midst of the installation. The delineations between consumer good or artwork, authorship, and the relative monetary worth of the objects in the space remain lingering questions, having been more or less muddled through the collective activity and interests of everyone involved.
Along with the gallery’s conventional channels of promotion, an ad has been placed on Craigslist with business hours and a partial inventory of items for sale. Hopefully, this may result in transactions that further edit the contents of the space, and continue these negotiations of value.
