In Our Pockets, 2020
This sewn wearable piece is part of an ongoing project, in which I collect and carry remnants of my daily life, that I now prolong my goodbyes with. At the start of working remotely from home in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I began collecting aftermath from my actions of peeling. The peeled remains are then grouped and kept in different places on my body: various skins from produce and my daily routine now in close contact with my own skin. The action of wearing pockets full of banal treasures questions my skin’s relationship to these collected “skins”, and how these objects move, mature, or mold in relation to the space on my body they are kept. A temporary vessel, the pocketed garment safeguards these remnants until they find a new transient resting place. Some of these bio-degradable peelings found new pockets in spaces around Eugene, Oregon. Others, are still held onto and have been joined by “natural peelings” and findings from other found pockets.
My savored souvenirs at this point in time include, but are not limited to pencil shavings, garlic skins, onion skins, eggplant peelings, potato skins, carrot peelings, egg shells, banana peels, garbanzo bean skins, used wax face strip, peeled charcoal face-mask, and peeled Command strip.
What have you decided to hold onto? What is being temporarily kept in your pockets? How long has this material been held there? What about other pockets in your dirty laundry?
What other “pockets” can you locate in your immediate environment? Look above, around, and below. Can a pocket be located in architectural space? What about outdoors? Are the pockets you discover empty, or full? If you’d like to share your findings, send a photo to the account “whatsinourpockets” on instagram for your photo to be shared.