There is a long history of walking in art. There’s a long history of collecting, too – and I’m not simply referring to the acquisition of artworks via various financial transactions or otherwise; instead, I’m specifically speaking to the accumulation of items, materials, ephemera, whatever. In its very natural essence, walking is a performative act, but it can also be quite edifying and rather tender. Collecting in both senses can be completely sincere, as it ideally holds some personal meaning and isn’t merely a speculative act.
In my lifetime, humans have increasingly made themselves busier (or at least forced themselves to think they are busier). We are the most anxious society that has probably ever existed. So many people are always on the go, but that means they usually want to be on a plane, a train, or in an automobile. No matter how people are moving, their eyes are almost always glued to a screen. Even when people are walking, which for so many is on a treadmill, they’re usually looking at their phones or scanning back and forth between the news and a ballgame at their particular gym.
But if you take the time to walk outside and actually appreciate your surroundings – both in the city and in nature – you will likely find it to be meditative and/or stimulating. You will start to appreciate the aggressive droning noises and sharp, shrieking sounds of the city, and you won’t be able to avoid the stank-ass garbage or the overwhelmingly delightful scents of certain ethnic cuisines that thankfully expel those pungent moments. When you’re hiking a mountain trail, you’ll finally fall in love with the fact no two stones are the same and that trees are kind of just like wooden humans frozen in time. And if you’re on a nighttime stroll on a desolate beach, maybe you’ll be able to see stars you’ve never seen before and perhaps even hear true silence for the first time in a long time.
Jonathan Rajewski’s spheres are evidence of an artist who understands the value of both walking and collecting. These little spheres of debris contain underwear, dog hair, cigarette butts, receipts, USB cables, parking tickets, hospital socks, cat hair, bank statements, contact lenses, sunflowers, orange peels, ibuprofen, junk mail, and dozens of other bits and pieces the artist has been gathering since 2019. This ongoing mutable installation both reflects Jonathan’s life and pattern of remembering time and place, as well as his own personal aesthetic preferences and conceptual connections. However, it is also a reflection of the contemporary American condition. They are object clocks that can (and do) document both individual moments and extended eras.
There is so much waste and wasted potential here in this country. That said, there is also genuine beauty in understanding that fact; that is, what could have been, what still is, and what still could be. These spheres are simultaneously representative and critical of consumer culture in the most honest and poetic of ways. If Barbara Kruger once stated, “I shop, therefore I am,” Rajewski appears to be saying, “We waste, therefore we are.”
- Keith J. Varadi
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Jonathan Rajewski, Untitled (Spheres), Dimensions Variable, 2019 – ongoing
Laundry lint, junk mail, dust, sheet music, bills, grocery lists, rubber bands, paper towel, dirt, sweet gum tree seed pods, beeswax, underwear, plaster, potato skins, coffee grounds, gift wrap, copper, dog hair, cigarette butts, lacrosse net, rabbit fur, packing tape, wood shavings, yarn, sand, pencil shavings, receipts, magazines, paper plates, fabric, holey socks, twine, rags, air fresheners, egg shells, fired clay, plastic, disinfectant wipes, airplane cocktail napkins, t-shirts, fake flowers, umbrella, sawdust, dog toy, grass, aluminum foil, birdseed, bottle lids, plastic bags, canned food labels, ribbon, construction paper, lace, staples, stress ball, tennis ball, wire, crossword puzzles, wood glue, chicken wire, string, price tags, Elmer’s glue, graphite, presidential candidate propaganda, stickers, wedding flowers, straw wrappers, chewing gum, dried leaves, fake leaves, seeds, ear plugs, USB cables, pipe cleaners, electrical wiring, beach towels, shoe lace, scouring pad, parking tickets, foam, acrylic, oil paint, human hair, sticky notes, to-do lists, fishing line, birthday napkins, photographs, coffee filters, wrapping paper, avocado pit, push pins, incense, birthday balloons, canvas, rope, hospital socks, house paint, cat hair, marble, dye, screws, belt, paper clip, plastic wrap, scarf, place mat, beads, glitter, buttons, coupons, business cards, bank statements, gloves, doggy bandana, dry wall, wax paper, twist ties, cigarette packaging, finger nails, champagne muselet, golf ball, wine corks, clementine rind, paper bag, ping pong ball, diaper, produce packaging, holiday decorations, garden soil, denim, oriented strand board, sunflowers, contact lenses, tea bags, tissue, toilet paper, dried blood, walnut, fetal monitor compression band, baby food, silk, dandelions, orange peels, rocks, seashells, ibuprofen, pistachios and marigolds.