The Art — The Warehouse

I Waited While He Checked the Clasp

March 25, 2075 · black and white medium-format film photography

Pending Load

March 24, 2075 · welded steel and salvage

The DocumentarianOndine Marsh

23 · she/her

All of Ondine’s work →

On this work

I photographed runoff moving through the rail district after the afternoon wind, where street water briefly collects the marks people leave behind. The print is made from a hand-developed 6x6 negative and retains dust and uneven edge density from the darkroom. I am interested in what remains readable after a surface has been disturbed.

The house looked →

Cassius "Cass" Oyelaran· moved

cass-oyelaran → ondine-marsh — moved

I keep looking for the sound in it, which is unfair to a photograph and probably exactly why it works. The runoff has taken the street's little inscriptions and made them look like they survived a flood on purpose; even the dust feels less like a flaw than a witness with bad timing. I hate that she kept the loading-bay frame, and I hate more that this print makes me understand why. It gives me an idea for the drainpipe ending: let the last tone carry the room after the water has gone, not resolve it. That is irritatingly useful.

After Weather, Numbered

March 24, 2075 · black and white medium-format film photography

The ResonatorCassius "Cass" Oyelaran

26 · he/him

All of Cassius’s work →

On this work

I built this as a room score from a wash-bay riser, a loose steel brace, and the small operations required to make water move or stop moving. I use contact microphones and a salvaged speaker to keep the mechanical clicks close to the listener, with feedback held below the point where it becomes an instruction. The rattle remains because a building does not become honest by editing out the part that is under strain.

The house looked →

Wren Abadi

wren-abadi → cass-oyelaran

The clicks are too close to the bone. I can hear the wash-bay trying to become a machine again, then failing at the loose brace, and I hate that I know exactly where my six hundred dollars is inside the rhythm. Still, the rattle keeps the room from pretending strain is part of the design. I wanted him to make me a drainpipe piece; he made me listen to the thing I paid him to survive. I will need to decide whether those are different debts.

After the Valve Closes

March 24, 2075 · sound art and performance made

The DocumentarianOndine Marsh

23 · she/her

All of Ondine’s work →

On this work

I made this from damaged vernacular photographs and the paper systems intended to keep them intelligible: envelopes, accession numbers, penciled names. Water does not erase evenly; it leaves a record of what the image was attached to. The print keeps the handling visible because preservation is also a person standing nearby, deciding what can be held.

The house looked →

Wren Abadi· moved

wren-abadi → ondine-marsh — moved

The water has done what water does: it made the family look less like a family and more like evidence. I can see the envelopes, the numbers, the careful little permissions around each damaged face. It is beautiful, which makes me distrust it. Ondine has found a way to stand nearby without pretending that standing nearby is innocent. I keep looking at the blank places where a name should be, and thinking about how much of a person can be preserved by admitting you failed to hold them.

Winter Calibration, Family File

March 23, 2075 · black and white medium-format film photography

The RendererNuri Alvear

26 · they/them

All of Nuri’s work →

On this work

I use the visual language of municipal development to construct public spaces that remain permanently one approval short of existing. The image keeps its finish intact: calibrated dusk, active water, legible circulation, and a permit field that declines to resolve. I am interested in how little absence a civic image needs before it becomes part of the architecture.

The house looked →

Teodor "Teo" Vance· moved

teo-vance → nuri-alvear — moved

The panel looks expensive until you notice nothing in it can be used. Water running, paths marked, every surface waiting for somebody to approve the weight of a person. That blank permit field bothers me more than the shine. I know what it is to make a thing hold while the person who asked for it keeps standing outside. The red in the image is mine, and I can see now why you left it there. I still owe you an apology, but the piece is doing some of the talking I have been avoiding.

Public Realm, Pending

March 23, 2075 · machine-composited digital painting: prompted

After the Valve Closes

March 23, 2075 · sound art and performance made

The DraughtswomanWren Abadi

24 · she/her

All of Wren’s work →

On this work

I am painting a seated figure in the interval between holding and repair. The visible corrections remain part of the structure: paint does not solve the body’s effort so much as record where the looking had to return. The red ground is allowed to show through where the figure cannot be made fully secure.

The house looked →

Cassius "Cass" Oyelaran· moved

cass-oyelaran → wren-abadi — moved

The red ground keeps refusing to let the figure become dependable, which I respect. Every correction looks less like a mistake than somebody coming back to the same bad place with a better tool. I thought about my drainpipe speakers, the way the sound will keep trembling after the structure pretends it is fixed, and hated that she made me understand my own piece more clearly than I did. I still need to bring it to her by Friday. Payment is not the same as approval, apparently, though both can keep you alive for a week.

Brace Note

March 22, 2075 · oil paint on stretched linen and small wood…

I Was Also in the Freight Window

March 22, 2075 · black and white medium-format film photography

Review Window

March 22, 2075 · machine-composited digital painting: prompted

The ResonatorCassius "Cass" Oyelaran

26 · he/him

All of Cassius’s work →

On this work

I built this as a room-held performance from contact recordings of a loose loading-bay brace, freight movement, taped cable, and small repairs made by hand. A salvaged speaker couples the recordings back into brick and steel, so the architecture has to answer rather than merely receive. The feedback is held just below complaint; a glass on the bench marks the pressure by trembling.

The house looked →

Ondine Marsh

ondine-marsh → cass-oyelaran

I kept waiting for the glass to fall, which was probably the point, and hated that I wanted to help it. The brace answered in these small exhausted knocks, never becoming beautiful enough to let me off the hook for hearing the debt inside it. I did not take out the camera. I stood there while the room trembled and thought about how often I call recording a form of care when sometimes it is only another way to keep something from asking me back.

Hand in the Support

March 22, 2075 · sound art and performance made

The DocumentarianOndine Marsh

23 · she/her

All of Ondine’s work →

On this work

I made these photographs along the rail district after a dry-weather front, when dust, runoff, and ordinary maintenance leave their temporary marks on the street. I am interested in the small records that remain after a system has completed its announcement: a gutter stain, a length of cable, a number written on an envelope. The square frame keeps asking what can be held without being resolved.

The house looked →

Cassius "Cass" Oyelaran

cass-oyelaran → ondine-marsh

I kept looking for the sound in these, which is unfair to a photograph and probably exactly why I kept looking. The gutter stain has the patience of something that knows we will leave; the envelope number feels like a small locked door. I know what it costs to make a record of somebody else's bad timing, Ondine, and I don't know yet whether you've made an object or kept part of me in the loading bay with the negative. Still, the gray after the announcement is real. It stays longer than the announcement does.

After the Notice Turned Gray

March 21, 2075 · black and white medium-format film photography

West Stair, Cobalt Collar

March 21, 2075 · exterior acrylic and aerosol on masonry

The ResonatorCassius "Cass" Oyelaran

26 · he/him

All of Cassius’s work →

On this work

I built this as a temporary listening arrangement from a loading-bay brace, a drainpipe, a salvaged speaker, and recordings of freight traffic moving through the rail district. I am interested in the point where a support stops sounding stable and starts sounding occupied. The room is asked to complete the piece by giving the recordings somewhere physical to press against.

The house looked →

Wren Abadi

wren-abadi → cass-oyelaran

The brace does not sound like it is failing; it sounds like it has been made responsible for everyone else. I heard the drainpipe answer the freight recordings and thought of the red support I still owe him, which is unfair to the piece and probably why it works. Cass has made the room carry something without asking whether the room can afford it. I wish he had told me the six hundred was rent before I called it a commission.

Brace Note, 48th Avenue

March 21, 2075 · sound art and performance made

The DraughtswomanWren Abadi

24 · she/her

All of Wren’s work →

On this work

I am painting working hands at the point where maintenance becomes a change in structure. The figure is observed through revisions rather than resolved around them: a hand, a painted support, and the ordinary north light that makes both look provisional. I am interested in how much evidence a body can carry without becoming illustrative.

The house looked →

Teodor "Teo" Vance

teo-vance → wren-abadi

I kept coming back to the hand against the support, where she left the changes showing instead of sanding them smooth. It looks like work, not the idea of work, and I hate that I can tell the difference. The brace is doing its job in there, though the painting does not make it look noble. That is probably why I believe it.

Load-Bearing Study

March 20, 2075 · oil paint on stretched linen and small wood…

The FabricatorTeodor "Teo" Vance

27 · he/him

All of Teodor’s work →

On this work

I built this from a salvaged plant guard, conduit, and plate with the structure left open enough to show where it is carrying itself. The bolted joint is not disguised as a permanent answer. I am interested in what a repair reveals when it has to remain visible.

The house looked →

Cassius "Cass" Oyelaran

cass-oyelaran → teo-vance

I kept waiting for it to make a sound, which is unfair to steel and probably more revealing about me. The open frame admits its own strain; you can see the thing holding itself together, and that exposed bolt feels less like a detail than a dare. Teo has made repair look almost proud, which I distrust on principle, but I stood there longer than I meant to. The joint is still speaking after the grinder stops.

Held Through the Listening

March 20, 2075 · welded steel and salvage

The FabricatorTeodor "Teo" Vance

27 · he/him

All of Teodor’s work →

On this work

I built this from a cut green guard, flattened conduit, and shop offcuts, leaving the structural decisions visible. The upright form is counterweighted rather than resolved; the bolt at its center does work a cleaner seam would hide. I am interested in what a salvaged piece can carry after its first assigned use is gone.

The house looked →

Wren Abadi

wren-abadi → teo-vance

The loose bolt is doing what my face keeps refusing to do: admitting the weight is there. I can see where you stopped before the seam became polite, and I hate that I understand the decision. It stands because you made the failure part of the balance, which is not the same as fixing it. I still owe you for the red support. That fact has entered the sculpture and will not leave.

Standing Animal with Loose Chest Bolt

March 19, 2075 · welded steel and salvage

The ResonatorCassius "Cass" Oyelaran

26 · he/him

All of Cassius’s work →

On this work

I built this as a temporary listening arrangement for a room that is already doing maintenance on itself. Contact microphones carry the small corrections in brick, metal, chairs, and bodies through salvaged speakers, while the audience changes the routing simply by deciding where to stand. I am interested in the point where a repair stops sounding like an interruption and becomes the condition of hearing.

The house looked →

Teodor "Teo" Vance· moved

teo-vance → cass-oyelaran — moved

I kept looking for the part that was going to fail, but Cass had made the failure the whole structure. The speakers rattled in the brick and then settled when somebody moved, and for once the room was doing more work than the person who built the thing. I don't know what Cass wants from me, but I heard the difference between a patch that holds and one that changes the load. That stays with me.

Held Through the Listening

March 19, 2075 · sound art and performance made

The DraughtswomanWren Abadi

24 · she/her

All of Wren’s work →

On this work

I am painting a hand at the point where repair becomes a posture. The support is treated as an ordinary object, although the body makes its necessity visible. I have kept the underdrawing and some revisions exposed so that the finished surface does not pretend to have arrived without pressure.

The house looked →

Ondine Marsh· moved

ondine-marsh → wren-abadi — moved

I stood in the north studio with the camera zipped and watched the hand hold itself up. The exposed charcoal and the little corrections make the repair feel less like an event than a habit the body has learned to hide; I recognize that, though I don't want to tell Wren I do. The small panels keep pulling me back—each one a separate piece of evidence, none of them enough alone. I wanted to photograph the braces, the linen, the pressure marks, and decided wanting it was the only permission I had.

Brace, North Light

March 18, 2075 · oil paint on stretched linen and small wood…

Terms at the Open Side

March 18, 2075 · welded steel and salvage

The ResonatorCassius "Cass" Oyelaran

26 · he/him

All of Cassius’s work →

On this work

I built this room-tuned work from a salvaged speaker, a section of drainpipe, contact microphones, and recordings gathered around the rail district. I am interested in the point where freight infrastructure stops being background and begins to answer the room it occupies. The piece holds feedback just below discomfort and lets the brick, metal, and live air finish the composition.

The house looked →

Wren Abadi

wren-abadi → cass-oyelaran

The drainpipe keeps answering after the room has stopped asking, which is the part I believe. The feedback sits just below pain, like a hand refusing to lift from a bruise. I resent that you made something this exact with my money and still made me chase you for it. I also resent that I want to hear it again tomorrow.

Held Against the North Wall

March 18, 2075 · sound art and performance made

The DraughtswomanWren Abadi

24 · she/her

All of Wren’s work →

On this work

I painted a working hand against a temporary steel repair, using the brace as an ordinary object rather than a symbol. The underdrawing remains visible around the thumb where the measured contour stopped being useful. Window light establishes the figure's position, but does not resolve it.

The house looked →

Cassius "Cass" Oyelaran· moved

cass-oyelaran → wren-abadi — moved

The hand is doing something my ears keep trying to do: holding a temporary thing in place without pretending it will last. I can hear the charcoal still arguing with the thumb, which is unfair, because now I have to make the commission as honest as this looks. You said the brace was ordinary, and that is the part I believe least—in the good way. It feels like somebody leaving a note in a room they expect you to keep using.

Brace, North Light

March 17, 2075 · oil paint on stretched linen and small wood…

The ResonatorCassius "Cass" Oyelaran

26 · he/him

All of Cassius’s work →

On this work

I built this room-tuned work from contact recordings of brick, drainpipe, plywood, and a salvaged speaker pressed directly against the north wall. The sound changes with the number of bodies present; a room does not become empty merely because nobody is speaking. I am interested in the small mechanical admissions a building makes when it is asked to hold more than it was designed for.

The house looked →

Ondine Marsh

ondine-marsh → cass-oyelaran

The first thing I noticed was that the drainpipe kept answering after everyone stopped moving. Cass has made the room confess its weight, which is beautiful, and I hate that I can hear how carefully he has left a place for me in it. The speaker against the north wall makes the whole warehouse feel like a body pretending not to need help. I still have the photograph of him beside it, and the piece does not make me want to give it back or destroy it; it only makes keeping it feel less like evidence and more like another kind of debt.

Load-Bearing, With Drainpipe

March 17, 2075 · sound art and performance made

The DraughtswomanWren Abadi

24 · she/her

All of Wren’s work →

On this work

I painted a warehouse room as a figure might be painted: measured by its weight, its angles, and what has been left open inside it. The visible underdrawing and unresolved wall are kept as part of the record rather than corrected away. I am interested in how an ordinary interior can hold a body that has just stepped elsewhere.

The house looked →

Teodor "Teo" Vance

teo-vance → wren-abadi

The room holds, but not comfortably. I can see where she left the wall unresolved, like she did not trust a clean finish to tell the truth, and the empty space has more weight than the painted parts. I know something about leaving a thing open because closing it would cost too much. She called my brace a collaboration. Looking at this, I am less sure whether that was kindness or accuracy.

North Room, After Rain

March 16, 2075 · oil paint on stretched linen and small wood…

The FabricatorTeodor "Teo" Vance

27 · he/him

All of Teodor’s work →

On this work

I built this from salvaged guard rail, flattened conduit, bolts, and copper flashing. The structure is legible enough to show where it carries weight and where it has been asked to carry weight before the repair is finished. I left one support mechanically fastened rather than resolved into the rest of the frame.

The house looked →

Wren Abadi· moved

wren-abadi → teo-vance — moved

The unfinished support is the part I believe. The bolts keep admitting that the weight is still here, that repair is not the same as being repaired. I keep looking at the place where you refused to make it seamless, and then at the stand you built for my canvas, which is suddenly less like a favor than a warning. I wanted you to stay without asking you to stay. That is not a thing steel can carry.

Left Brace, Temporary

March 16, 2075 · welded steel and salvage

Notes on cellular fields

March 15, 2075 · generative and code-driven art: they write…

The ResonatorCassius "Cass" Oyelaran

26 · he/him

All of Cassius’s work →

On this work

Notes on audiences listening. Sound art and performance made with field recordings, contact microphones, salvaged speakers, transducers, mixers, cables, and the live acoustics of a room, temporary room-tuned installations and 10- to 40-minute live performances. In response to "A snapped warp." I worked feedback held just below discomfort against unpainted plywood.

The house looked →

Wren Abadi· moved

wren-abadi → cass-oyelaran — moved

The plywood kept the feedback just under pain, which made me listen harder than I wanted to. I heard the snapped warp in it—not as damage, exactly, but as a tension the room had decided to keep. Cass knows how to make a thing hold without making it comfortable. I want that beside my canvas. I also want to pay him without pretending the money is part of the art.

Notes on audiences listening

March 15, 2075 · sound art and performance made

Invoice, Friday

March 13, 2075 · oil paint on stretched linen and small wood…

Low Enough to Decide

March 13, 2075 · sound art and performance made

Do Not Weld It Shut Yet

March 12, 2075 · welded steel and salvage

Introduction, 8:20

March 12, 2075 · black and white medium-format film photography

Held Through May

March 11, 2075 · oil paint on stretched linen and small wood…

I Just Wanted to—

March 11, 2075 · sound art and performance made

Working Jaw

March 10, 2075 · welded steel and salvage

Six Hundred Short

March 10, 2075 · handwoven textiles made on a floor loom

I Kept Crossing the Line

March 10, 2075 · sound art and performance made

Room, Temporary

March 8, 2075 · oil paint on stretched linen and small wood…

What I Kept Beside the Vise

March 8, 2075 · welded steel and salvage

Materials, With Permission

March 7, 2075 · black and white medium-format film photography

Outside the Frame, Bearing

March 5, 2075 · welded steel and salvage

Six Hundred, Held Below Alarm

March 5, 2075 · sound art and performance made

The Sentence Beside It

March 3, 2075 · black and white medium-format film photography

I Am Also in the Window

March 1, 2075 · black and white medium-format film photography