STATEMENT: Shredding Mailbox is a quick solution for unwanted junk mail--much of which contains personal information and is an invitation to identity theft. Throwing mail away is so 20th century when you can turn it to compost without even touching it. The gizmo works but for safety reasons is displayed unplugged.

STATEMENT: This piece sets up an imaginary data base of facial recognition information about legendary women of art history. Each grand dame is scanned and mapped to become part of the file. The mapping system is taken from basic life drawing. Provenience and other vitals are recorded on a notched Unisort Analysis card (a pre computer cataloging method of the 1960's). The low tech lifedrawing facial analysis system lampoons sophisticated contemporary efforts to codify the face. For enhanced archival value, the maidens are displayed on linoleum.

STATEMENT: The picture in the frame is of a bar coded apple displayed so that it is out of reach and even difficult to see . The flimsy ladder invites harvest but the picker would probably be injured and the fruit is secured by the frame. The piece takes aim at temptation as defined by corporate advertising. It makes obvious metaphorical allusion to the Garden of Eden.

STATEMENT: The New York leaf is presented in a zip disk jewel box, branded with a security tracking device and seductively nested in waxed paper much like vegetables are sold in upscale markets. The oversized leaf is at once commodity and data. It is ready to fly and trapped by its circumstance. It is posed, primped, and smiling so to speak.

STATEMENT: The unique leaves are notched, bar coded and presented in plastic blister boxes which complete their passage from mulch to commodity. The various commodifying marks whimsically create commercial value in something otherwise disposable. Notching is accomplished with a punch once used to codify Unisort Analysis cards, a pre-computer sorting method. Each display box has handles and a plant identification tag (seen to the lower right of each frame).

STATEMENT: This contraption displays incubating bulbs in a very controlled environment. That said, the environment in question is anything but conducive to proper growth and nourishment. The bulbs are being closely scrutinized as if they are going through a security check.

STATEMENT: The traditional trail guidepost which shows the way to destinations near and far is transformed into a less than helpful bar code router. Not only is the information largely unintelligible to the naked eye, but the cairn is on wheels meaning that you cannot even trust the direction of the arrows. Bungie cords suggest the possibility of fixing the information or tethering it to the floor.

STATEMENT: Borrowing the title Luncheon on the Grass from Manet, the piece depicts a whimsical picnic or tailgate party as if from the back of a pickup. The astroturf and plastic picnic ware set the stage for--not nature--but a video of nature. A suburban deer wanders aimlessly across the screen while the diners face the dear as if it was a third party at the table--or perhaps the nude in the Manet painting. The TV draws its power from a plug on the framed astroturf.

STATEMENT: A 1920's globe displayed behind a cage and bolted to a copper pedestal is surrounded by moveable metal signs proclaiming such messages as SCENIC OVERLOOK, POINT OF INTEREST, PHOTO OPPORTUNITY, etc. A parallel series of signs might read TARGET OF OPPORTUNITY, NO FLY ZONE or FOR SALE. The sign displays are the sort used to advertise sales at the hardware store.

STATEMENT: The questionnaire takes the viewer through a series of questions which attempt to ferret out personal information while eventually concluding that the viewer has passed the test. The spotlight and the mirror place the viewer under the scrutiny of the unseen other. When the piece was fabricated, it was deliberately wired so that it was dysfunctional; the wires were not attached in the box. Note the tightly coiled wire in the foreground. When on display in New York, a helpful installer connected up the wiring in the junction box and plugged it in. This unexpected alteration changed the meaning of the piece but added a little Surrealist chance encounter quality.