TIME & AGAIN #24 by Mickey Smith

The TIME & AGAIN collection explores the passage of time, grief and preservation of memory through the visual metaphor of the library.

As technology advances, each layer of our cultural memory becomes thinner, more temporal and difficult to recall. Print resources naturally recede as information is migrated online. Bound newspapers were discarded once scanned onto microfilm. The dizzying instability of microfilm led to its demise. What remains are visual clues and symbols which cue where we must START or END as we engage with something, or someone, no longer tangible. Edges of scanned books frame brightly illuminated screens and stains of deterioration scar pages where there is no longer paper. Evolving and devolving, the photographs created for this collection began in print, layered with a skin from the internet and designed to rest on the blockchain.

The project title, TIME & AGAIN, was taken from a piece artist Lawrence Weiner wrote for Japanese conceptual artist On Kawara in 2002. In referencing Kawara’s work, which dealt primarily with the passage of time, Weiner wrote:

TIME & AGAIN TO STEP OUT OF HISTORY AS WE KNOW IT & AFFIRM THEY ARE STILL ALIVE AT LEAST FOR TODAY & AS A HOSTAGE OF HISTORY TO HOLD UP A NEWSPAPER TO ATTEST TO THE REALITY OF HAVING GOTTEN TO THE PRESENT DOES DO GIVE ONE HOPE


Edition: 1 of 1

Commissioned by Obscura