I was making another version of my recycled books for this project, using junk mail, old test prints and various paper pieces that have made their way to me just from living in this world. Which got me to thinking... These books of recycled paper are a snap shop of life, which is what interested me in doing them. It occurred to me, that they measure of a life within a place and time. It could be that of a number of people, but not everyone...who would 'they' be? People who fit my demographic, marketing profile, perhaps. That would not be everyone. What about those people who live much closer to the bone than I currently do? Definitely not, especially if they are not in the visual arts. Been there, seen it. I am shocked at the kind of material I get sometimes and the assumptions they make because of age, gender or buying habits. What about those who live more extravagantly than myself? Or are part of other ethnic groups? Live in different countries? Couldn't tell you.
I used to believe that we all share common experiences and common life, and therefore there is not distinct stratification. That may be more of an illusion though. We congregate in familiar places, group ourselves and create unwittingly (?) circles of influence and confluence. Some circles rarely if ever meet. Is that really any different than the idea of stratification?
This project has made me much more aware of circles.
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