Memory Market

Piazza Santa Maria Novella

Florence, Italy

July 29, 2015

The Memory Market was a one-day, collaborative public performance in which Jonathan Hanahan and I borrowed from the commercial activity and visual language of local street vendors to create an alternative market of mementos. Instead of selling wares such as teacups, thimbles, shot glasses and statuettes—items ubiquitous in tourist destinations yet often possessing only superficial associations with their assigned landmarks—we offered passersby items imbued with traces of the place in which they were sold. My contribution was a series of automobile fragments cast in a mixture of glue and dirt collected from area streets and sidewalks. A certificate of authenticity accompanied each purchase. 

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01-05︎︎︎Several of the sculptures for sale. 
06︎︎︎Setting up shop in the piazza.
07︎︎︎Getting kicked out by an Italian policeman. 
08︎︎︎Front side of the takeaway, printed in English and Italian. 
09︎︎︎Back side of the takeaway.
10︎︎︎Setting up shop in a different location in the piazza.
11︎︎︎Conversing and transacting.
12︎︎︎Certificate of authenticity. 
13︎︎︎Sifting street dirt and dust in preparation for casting.