Friday, March 27, 2009

Allan


on a rooftop in SOMA
Friday noon

***

in his words:

I've recently started collecting pieces of scrap metal I find in the street. I've always been a collector, but previously my habit had been limited to Legos or CDs or typewriters -- useful things. Now I pick up discarded hunks of rusty metal.

This came about when a couple of weeks ago I'd noticed that while biking I was having to swerve around a lot more scrap metal than usual. I mentioned this to a friend, saying, "If I'd been picking it all up, I'd have a gallery-ready art project on my hands by now." My friend said, "You should do it!" I said, "No, no, then I'd be an insane person."

The compulsive collector in me took over, and now the piles of junk on my coffee table at home and on my desk at work are getting bigger every day. I've gotten some good stuff on Valencia, on Duboce, and on Bryant. But my choicest find to date is the big rusty coil I picked up on Alemany this morning. I don't know anything about art galleries.

I am an insane person.

***

Allan's blog is Mission Mission.

The rest of Allan's photoshoot is here.

3 comments:

will said...

Take a look at the art of Willie Cole. If possible see the first piece he did (his young son helped him).

Char said...

I love the whimsical nature of how it all started. :)

Laura Doyle said...

Your photos all seem to have this ease...these brave volunteers (or hams) never look shy or stilted in any way. You must be amazing to work with. : ) If I lived in SF you could surely take my picture!