All the Doorstops in the Building | 2020
To create this piece, I methodically collected all 121 doorstops in the building where my studio is located over the course of one month, and subsequently replaced each with a standardized version that I fabricated from white oak and industrial kitchen-grade rubber. Before its replacement, each doorstop was documented in-situ, its geo-coordinates were notated, and observations regarding its position and physical characteristics were recorded into a field notebook. Upon retuning to my studio, each collected doorstop was assigned a latin binomial, unique object number, and photographed as if it were being accessioned into a museum collection. The finished work is displayed with informational maps denoting the location where each doorstop was found, examples of replacement doorstops, and a video created from my field documentation.
The work borrows the methodology and vocabulary of natural history museums and applies them to an absurdist goal. By doing so, it humorously explores the historic intent of institutions and draws attention to the structures of collecting and scientific categorization that are an implicit operational function of these cultural bodies. The unintended consequences and impacts of these practices are brought into question as well through the project’s indirect homogenization of a diverse field of objects into a singular, standardized entity.
Replacement doorstops
