Serena Ruth – and putting back

and putting back adopts an aesthetic approach to the process of clearing up or clearing out. It explores a certain kind of sorting that occurs when one is aiming to make space. The work creates a lens that alludes to spaces that are perpetually in need of a sorting through, a clearing out. Spaces in which we wish there were more space.

There is a relationship between the act of creating space and historicity. Often, the preoccupation of clearing out has a history. As objects surface, we find ourselves catapulted into the act of remembering. How do we linger as we clear? What role does recall have in relation to getting things done?

And what of those moments when we come across a thing that we don’t know what to do with? How often do we put things back where we found them? How often do things surface that we are so unsure about, that we feed them back into the space that is in perpetual need of clear out? When we don’t know what to do with a found thing, do we put it back? Leave it for our future selves to sort?

The music excerpts in the work are from New York City Serenade – Bruce Springsteen.