Paper Monuments (2022)
When we return to certain memories, whether they be stored for us as images in the mind, or as binary data, we imagine these figments to be essentially siteless, floating. We think of the Cloud as existing immanently, all around us, hanging in the air between screens. And it is. But it is also anchored to real, monumental amounts of physical space. It is not just everywhere, it is somewhere on Earth, sitting on millions of square feet of land, ready to be called up in front of any eye with the right keywords.
Paper Monuments No. 1-7 (2020-2022)
A series of seven 41x53 in. inkjet prints on kozo
Each form is drawn on the same sheet of mylar, photographed, and then erased.
Jeune tête d’affiche →
Sixteen Million Square Feet (2022)
10 x 10 in. acetate collage print, overhead projector
The three data centers depicted in the image:
China Telecom Data Center, Hohhot, China (11 Million Square Feet of storage)
Switch SuperNAP Data Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada (3.5M)
Apple’s Mesa Data Center in Arizona (1.3M)
Paper Monuments - A Slide Film (2022)
40 min. performance: positive film, slide projector, narration
Out of sight from the audience, the artist delivers a voiceover as 144 positive slides unfold into an essay-like recounting of the history and future of memory storage. Many of the images in the slides are found-media or web images that have been rephotographed onto film––Google Streetviews, AI-generated online advertising, screenshots from Facetiming with family members who have since passed away. These seemingly disparate images are strung together by a story, told live, as the steady forward click of the slide carousel counts time.
