Baby Sock, Glen Canyon Park
Eric Henry (San Francisco, CA)
Inkjet print, 36” W x 24” H
Artwork:
Baby Sock is taken from a series called “Lost & Found” – a title whose double-meaning points to one of life’s everyday pitfalls as well as to something at the core of human drama. The series features twenty-one lost articles of clothing, photographed first as I found them, and then again in my home, after being sterilized, laundered, and placed in the context I felt best showed due consideration: a coat rack for a scarf, a shelf for a sweater, my hands for an orphaned baby sock.
Each garment is an intimate stand-in for a person who has suffered a loss, as casual as an accidentally dropped hat, or as profound as homelessness, mental illness, or the countless ways a person can be ostracized or mistreated. And attempts at restoration have fallen woefully short: holes and stains remain, garments remain forever absent from their owners. This work points to the enduring grief of these losses, as well as to the beauty that arises from making room for them in whatever ways we can.
Artist Statement:
My recent work uses photography and video montage to examine the value of things we discard or overlook, in our communities and within ourselves. I collect scenes from everyday life, and sift the charmless, broken, and abandoned objects I encounter in my wanderings for narratives of loss and unexpected beauty… to see the rest of the Artist Statement visit weredoingitallwrong.com or scan the QR Code.