Equipment from the Aldrich exhibition, Sleeping Under Stars, Living Under Satellites, arrived in San Francisco last week, and so yesterday we took this gear to our Vallejo storage unit in a Zip truck. 

Thinking about storage, George S. Kingsley’s Atlas Storage, the ubiquity of “stuff,” and the obsolescence and allure of artworks that depend on dead and dying tech—we unpacked and repacked our stuff.

Here’s what we have in the storage facility as of today, in no particular order:

1. one large monitor, last used for Clockwork installation at Sweetow Gallery
2. 2 laserdisc players, last used for Winter
3. laserdiscs for Winter and Blacky
4. pencil shavings for installation of Blacky
5. two etched monitors from the Blacky installation (in stackable crates)
6. box of chains, last used for Catapult
7. panels for model of Spring (folding half-silvered glass plus 2 rear-screens)
8. chair for Blacky installation
9. truck mirrors (in stackable crate)
10. ceiling turner, last used for Winter (disco ball) and Catapult (chandelier) at the Headlands, modified for the installation of Catapult at Sonoma State University
11. train model (a building on fire) last used for Loss Prevention
12. 8 small pieces of wood, used for hanging plexi-panels for Clockwork
13. roll of blue paper
14. roll brown paper
15. roll of reflective mylar film last used for Catapult
16. assorted gels
17. white shelf, last used during Clockwork install at Sweetow
18. 2 wireless headphones (batteries included but taken out) [didn’t see these 07.12.10]
19. boat compass, last used as prop for Winter [Jeanne brought this home 07.12.10]
20. SCSI DAT drive
21. box of assorted models (planes, tanks, trains)
22. disco ball from Winter [I thought we returned this to Billy 07.12.10]
23. large steel frames for Spring plus legs
24. empty box for a Canon scanner
25. empty box from the Aldrich shipment
26. Vanessa Marsh’s diorama for Sleeping Under Stars
27. additional parts for Sleeping Under Stars diorama
28. 2 powered speaker systems
29. rotating platform, last used in Sleeping Under Stars and Guarded
30. ceiling turner, built by Paul Swenbeck for Sleeping Under Stars
31. a box of catalogs, Jovial Tales for Tragic Sensibilities
32. a flat aquarium last used when shooting a projection piece for Patricia Sweetow’s new gallery (we filled it with milk)

Many of these items are on their way to the dump, the storage unit a false security: empty boxes, rolls of paper, chains, mirrors, various mdf shelves and miscellaneous blocks of wood, the aquarium.  Some items are indispensable, but only if we are asked to revive and reinstall an old work: Spring needs these steel frames, the etched monitors are unique.  Some items are almost antiques: the DAT drive, the laserdiscs and players, the monitor, the catalogs, the models.  Some items could be used but likely won’t be, a dry fount of potential: the truck mirrors.
Where do these things belong?  What part do they play when they’re otherwise lying around, unused?