Vinyl Records
Provenance is no longer just a footnote in the history of art; it's become a dialogue within the work itself. Every object carries a story, a past, and when I incorporate these found artifacts—whether it's a vinyl record, a vintage photograph, or a fragment of obsolete technology—I'm preserving a piece of that history, leaving its essence intact within the new narrative I create.
Take the example of painting a vinyl record but deliberately leaving the center label untouched. That label is a fingerprint, a connection to its origin, its cultural context, and the hands that once held it. It's more than just an aesthetic choice; it's an acknowledgment of the object's journey. In a world obsessed with speed and disposability, provenance becomes a tool to resist this erasure of memory. It reminds us that the new cannot exist without the old, and that what we create today will one day be part of a continuum, echoing back to these individual histories.
In my work, provenance is not just a stamp of authenticity—it's an active participant. By preserving pieces of the original artifact, I’m giving the viewer an invitation to engage with its past, to reflect on the interplay between where something comes from and where it can go. The untouched elements anchor the work in time, creating a tension between the before and after, the original and the transformed. In doing so, I honor the object's lineage while simultaneously reframing its existence for a modern audience.
In this way, provenance becomes a medium in itself, one that speaks to our complex relationship with the material world and our responsibility as artists to acknowledge and carry forward the legacies embedded within the things we repurpose.
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VINYL Exhibition Series — ABA Gallery - Atlanta, GA - 2020 - 2023