Aspirational Vestiges

Installation of Lightboxes with LED lights, aluminum, vinyl, controllers, 2024

Aspirational Vestiges is an installation comprised of lightboxes and signage, aimed at women, from small threading and waxing storefronts ubiquitous to New York City.  I photograph the signage in various states of degradation and refabricate the lightboxes as sculptural objects, considering the fantasy of both the seller and the buyer and where these desires collide: the storefronts of city sidewalks.  Recontextualizing and examining these seductive, yet worn, gendered marketing materials reveals the hopeful efforts of salespeople that have faded over time, their degradation communicating the absurdity, impossibility, and slow failure of our societal aspirations. The word “vestige” is twofold: either a trace of something that has been lost or an organ that has evolved to be inactive.   This collection also underscores the erasures and omissions in these materials at large: the full female body, aging, diversity, and the labor behind these storefronts.