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| INVENTORY METHODS, by Susan Hensel |
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| QR code to take the survey |
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| Gideon stands guard |
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| Gideon wonders what I am up to |
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| INVENTORY METHODS |
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| Preparing to install 160 tubes |
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| Preparing to install |
INVENTORY METHODS : do the math.
Inventory Methods is an artwork about accretion and
subtraction; accumulation and reduction.
It is a record of old pajamas discarded as useless and
accumulated as rags.
It is a record of weights, each tube containing 4 ounces of
waste materials: rags.
It is a declaration of the beauty that remains in the
devalued, worn, discarded.
It is a record of an ongoing process of reduction and a
questioning of the nature of what, and who, we devalue and discard.
Each tube represent 4 ounces of weight lost: a reduction in
body size, a quest for health and a consideration of the pressures on bodies to
conform to cultural standards.
Gaining and losing weight is very public. Unless one hides away from the eyes of
others, the process is subject to value judgments, comment, encouragement,
discouragement, vilification. That which is intensely private and personal,
becomes a public spectacle, subject to comment.
With this artwork I want to direct the commenting process,
developing community conversation at the intersection of numbers and beauty. I
will use a QR code to bring people into an active commenting process.
When did curves become unacceptable? When did fat cease to represent
wealth and fertility? When did
advanced age become frail and disrespected? When did age, weight, beauty and numbers begin to intersect
with moral judgements?
As I lost weight, I wanted to mark the progress, but also
name as beautiful that which was subtracted. I accumulated art as I reduce my size.
There are 160 tubes.
Do the math.
