In a twist of fate that only the dump could provide, I found components from a past project in the pile while scavenging. The rounds and the dowel pieces used in this installation were discarded wooden cake stands, each constructed and painted a color specifically for the SFMOMA Birthday Bash in 2017, a one night event with the theme “monochrome.” For the exhibition at Recology, a year and a half later, I repurposed the rounds, using them as canvases for poured paint works and transformed the dowels into teetering sculptures.

I was able to scavenge and reuse forty of the original eighty stands. In he Hebrew Bible, the number forty appears frequently as a marker of time— forty days or forty years—separating two distinct epochs. This number also represents generational time, as it often takes forty years for a new generation to arise.

Paint used in all the works is from the Household Hazardous Waste Program. Each one of the forty stripes on the wall is the result of all the colors that appear in the corresponding Marble Round mixed together. There were eight Stick Stacks, composed of segments painted in the forty colors. The tallest tower (165”) references the studio—turned gallery— where the work was made and is the distance from the concrete floor to the center wood beam.