Fun with Rope

What does rope and the contents of our apartment have to do with each other? Nothing… until the day that our friend, Alex Clausen, asked us to participate in his latest project. Typically, we go to galleries to see Alex’s work. We usually take the role of bystander, sip some wine and enjoy the evening. It is rare that we, or our belongings, are involved so deeply in someone else’s creative process. However, when Alex asked us to be a part of that process by lending him our apartment, what else would we say but of course. He is a friend and an artist the we respect. And besides, we thought we knew what to expect. We had seen a previous piece involving furniture.

The perfect opportunity came during one long weekend when we would be away. Here was a chance for him to have undisturbed access to all of our belongings. Although we trust Alex implicitly, we were still a little apprehensive about him showing up with bundles of rope and gear to turn our apartment upside down while we were gone. So we left, excited and nervous about the project.

Four days later, we returned from our trip and from the looks of things we wondered if Alex had even shown up. Nothing looked out of place in our apartment and the cat acted like nothing peculiar had occurred.

A couple weeks later, we received the evidence via e-mail. Alex had sent four pictures – two of our living room and two of our dining room. Except, it wasn’t really our living or dining rooms… they had become his. We didn’t recognize the space that we had lived in for so long and the pieces of furniture that we were so worried about had become mere objects bonded together by rope.

Between the two of us, we had moved a total of 20 times. That’s 20 times that we have boxed the contents of our lives and moved them to a new space. Our first impression of the work was a flashback to the many moves we have made. How wonderful would it have been to actually have packed and moved like this. It’s almost like the classic image of a omeless man with his belongings in a rag tied to a stick over his shoulder. Except in our case, we are much less mobile and much more burdened by the objects that own us. We have always taken such care in boxing and storing our belongings that the shock is that much greater to see them jumbled and tied together with rope.

We’re sure that people will take different meanings from this experience. But we would highly recommend that if Alex shows up at your door, with a bundle of rope and a digital camera, let him in.

Sharise and Chris Quinby
January 30, 2006