Debris and immobility

Lane Relyea is assistant professor of art theory and practice at Northwestern University. His most recent essays include "Your Art World" (Afterall, Autumn-Winter 2006), "Rise of DIY Art Schools" (Modern Painters, September 2007), and "Allover and at Once," in Critical Mess: Art Critics on the State of Their Practice, edited by Raphael Rubinstein (2006).

Heather Mekkelson is an MFA candidate (2008) at the University of lllinois at Chicago. AFter receiving her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Mekkelson exhibited at local and national venues including Standard (Chicago), the Figge Art Museum (Davenport, lowa), Raid Projects (Los Angeles), and the Sioux City Art Center (curated by The Pond). In 2006, Mekkelson was nominated for the Driehaus Emerging Artist Award. Her solo exhibition Debris Field opened at ThreeWallsSOLO (Chicago) in January of this year.

Heather Mekkelson, told them to look after the younger ones, from Debris Field, 2008, detail (opposite) and installation view (following pages): bundle with distressed and pigmented wood, steel, coated copper wire, and vinyl wallpaper; metal screen door frame with fiberglass insulation and cast-iron light fixture; chain-link fence gate; tarp; distressed and pigmented poly-cotton comforter and garbage bag; 60V electrical wire and starched polyester bedskirt; unraveled aluminum ducts, basket, and vinyl tubing; asphalt shingles; foam carpet padding; wood, distressed linoleum, and brass with matte medium, sand, and dirt; starched poly-cotton sock; cardboard magazine organizer, paper, stoneware plate, and aluminum; door panel; oscillating fan, matte medium, and sand; pigmented wood with electrical switch box, coated electrical wire, matte medium, sand, and dirt; aluminum miniblinds with handbag and receipts; distressed soccer ball; PVC, cement, foam, plaster, and wood; cardboard VHS sleeve, matte medium, sand, and dirt; pigmented wood stakes with vinyl flag tape; various work lights; aerosol marking paint; parabolic speaker with sound; dimensions variable (artwork [c] Heather Mekkelson; detail photograph opposite by Clare Britt)

(1.) Massimiliano Gioni, ''Ask the Dust," in Unmonumental: The Object in the 21st Century, exh. cat., Richard Flood, Laura Hoptman, Massimiliano Gioni, and Trevor Smith (London and New York: Phaidon. 2007). 65.

(2.) Richard Flood, "Not About Mel Gibson," in Unmonumental, 13.

(3.) Quoted in Fiachra Gibbons, "Guardian, April 2. 2003, 9.

(4.) Roland Barthes, "Plastic," in Mythologies, trans. Annette Lavers (New York; Hill and Wang, 1972). 97.

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