Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Presencing absence: cable ties and what's left behind

Thanks to Nicolas Laracuente (@archaeologist) for sending me this rather atmospheric photo of some cable ties on a lamp-post in Frankfort. Once, a poster or notice was attached using them. What it was about we'll never know (a concert or theatre advertisement? Wanted poster? Changes in bus timetables?): all that remains are the cable ties.


So cable ties really are the quintessential artefact of the contemporary past: they are always used to contain or fasten or attach some kind of thing, but we frequently find them unattached themselves, having become separated from the thing as it decayed or was taken apart or moved on to other uses, other occasions. Their very presence implies the absent thing.


2 comments:

  1. cable tie street art project nyc:
    http://www.animusart.com/flaming-cactus/

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  2. Thanks Heidi, I might have known an artist of your excellence would feel the cable tie love! I've seen pics of these, they are very beautiful and impressive. What intrigues me about the use of cable ties in art is that it's the pointy ends that are frequently the focus: in industrial use, these are a hazard, and are cut off once the object is secured, but in art and craft,it's the reverse.

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