I began conceptualizing this project as I walked through Brooklyn streets taking photos of empty storefronts.  In over two hundred images, it emerged that these quiet dusty storefronts represented 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 in which the artist creates their own opportunities within these storefronts.