DAR has given me an excuse to indulge in my metal detection fandom, over the course of the residency I'll be posting meshes based on the images from metal detecting lots on eBay which you can download by clicking on the buttons below the embedded objects.
something about un-earthing, de-planting, of extracting. not yet touching, not quite holding, of warp and waste.
when skin meets skin we feel the friction of follicle on follicle, the warmth of blood pumping beneath the surface of the epidermis, we feel the effects of electromagnetic repulsion stubbornly holding the matter that makes up our bodies (and everything else) from swift disintegration. Holding together and apart, we never truly touch.
The Antiquities section of eBay (an ever-changing archive of objects from some ‘before’) allows a potential customer to believe that they too can own a piece of the past. Financial value is shaped by the context in which the seller presents it - title, starting bid and, of course, the algorithmic calculation of the seller’s authenticity signified by yellow stars and numbers.
The mediation of the online marketplace permits these mounds of metal fragments a place on par with those Things more distinctly of value, framed by the same structure which drives the continuous emergence of these objects into the public realm before becoming private property once again.
