Andy Warhol Inspired Photo Shoot

"I believe that everyone should live in one big empty space. It can be a small space, as long as it's clean and empty."
This project is inspired by an article by Andy Warhol titled, 'From A to B and Back Again' (1975) He talks of his hatred for nostalgia and his ideas about how a person can rid themselves of this nostalgia in order to move on with their life and to truly live in the present. He believes that in order to have a life that is fully in the present, you cannot be hanging on to your past in anyway. A way to make sure you are not clinging to images of the past, is to get rid of anything around you that will make you think of it. He suggests that a person should go through a monthly ritual where you sort through and throw away things that have no meaning to you and to also take your possessions and things around you and put them into a box and put them away someplace where you cannot easily access it. I find this to be very intriguing, as I look around my room I see so many things that I keep just because they remind me of an experience, a person or a time in my past that I want to remember. Why do I hang on to them? Am I afraid that I will forget if I am constantly reminded? And how does this constant reminder effect my day to day activities? Warhol believes that it distracts from the present to keep things like that around. As I read his article I though more about my things and why I seem to think they are so important to keep around. My desk is an area where I keep a great deal of nostalgia, I have pictures, trinkets, notes and random gifts from friends all about my desk and computer area. This is the place where I do a great deal of my work and I sometimes find myself looking up at a picture of trinket and drifting off into memories of my past. This is not a good distraction!
For this project I am going to take this cluttered and nostalgic space of mine and convert it to a place where I can sit and feel at peace with fewer distraction to take me away from what I am trying to do. I will remove everything that I do not absolutely need for daily work activities and put it all in a box and put that box away and out of my sight for one whole month. The whole month of May this box will sit untouched and I will see how the change in scenery changes my habits, behaviors and productivity.
While doing this, I picked a small clean box and labeled it May 09 and filled it with pictures from my board, gifts from my friends, and colorful trinkets that cover my desk. It was surprising to see just how much stuff I keep around that I do not actually need on a regular or even monthly basis. Without all these objects, my desk seems quite stark and empty, but at the same time very clean and easy to look at. I took pictures before I removed everything to show how cluttered and unorganized it had been before, I then took a few pictures of the objects I removed and then the end result, my clean and bare desk just waiting for me to sit down and be productive!


Thank you for reading!
-S