Time Machine for Abandoned Futures

Time Machine for Abandoned Futures (2014-2015)

Time Machine for Abandoned Futures is an etching powered machine used to simultaneously clean away the rust from obsolete tools, while permanently etching the markings of ruination into their surface. Powering this etectrolytic cleaning process is a series of batteries made from etching plates and acids. Once cleaned, I meticulously outlined the patterns left by decades of rust and erosion, forming a kind of topographical map of the object’s history. During the exhibition, these objects pass through a series of plexiglas tanks containing acids and cleaners, resulting in glistening surfaces that memorialize their entire lifespan.

Simultaneously, a series of zinc replicas are submerged in an etching solution, and left to gradually erode and transform into nearly unrecognizable mounds. This process accelerates the effects of time and erosion, and is essentially an act of making ruins.

Image: Installation View (Platform Stockholm), 2014.

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Time Machine for Abandoned Futures, industrial artifacts, zinc etching plates, copper etching plates, copper sulphate, soda ash, steel, plexiglas, wire, 2014.

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detail (battery): plexiglas, copper sulfate, copper plates, zinc plates, wire.

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detail (electro-cleaning): artifact, soda ash, steel, wire.