European Graduate School EGS - Media Communication Studies Program

LOST AND FOUND -- THE GAS CAN PIECE

How bring you then the time through gas cans, earth, moss, cement casting tray 29 x 60 x 24 inches, 150 lbs. installed 1990 -- Tracy Ann Essoglou "How bring you then..." is a literal English translation of "what's up?" in Dutch. The phrasing makes explicit an inquiry into the physicality of time's passing, time's being and human interdependency -- 'I' ask 'you' that 'you' may tell 'me'. These gas cans came from a landfill site at the center of an island in Maine, Vinalhaven. I was permitted to enter the island's dump during off-hours because I was told, "You're the only off-islander that takes garbage away." The web of signification, of status, access, privilege referred to in this passing comment will continue to haunt and even undermine efforts at land and resource preservation. Beneath the cans lies a bed of moss which requires intermittent watering. The scent of gasoline interrupts the scent of wetness. Both cans and moss rest on approximately 120 lbs. of earth which has been poured into a cement casting tray found on a backstreet in Brooklyn. I needed something to rest the cans on, the tray came to me; its proportions perfect; its 'containerness' established the piece. The small white wooden staves suggest a territory, albeit a limited one, now belonging to the cans and their environ. Even as refuse, the cans are made entitled to a place of their own where use-value is not their only reason-for-being.

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