I began conceptualizing this project last year as I walked through Brooklyn taking photos of empty storefronts.  In these over two hundred images, these quiet dusty storefronts represent the inaccessible and opaque. When I was growing up in rural Vermont, space was in excess and presented with a sense of generosity, with ownership not always important. Yet here in the city, space is scarce and locked away. People who own are holding onto it tightly and communities are changing as a result. 

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This project was designed to document and activate. Each acrylic square contains the photos, with water flowing in between. This creates an an imagined space while at the same time referencing a real one. 

 

This project was created for an exhibition called Brooklyn Utopias. I imagined a world in which empty spaces are utilized for generative creative means and there is transparency in the transaction.  I am interested in creating this in a project that involves the artist creating their own opportunities within these storefronts.