Collaging Time
“One other thing he was collaging: time. The pieces engage with multiple time signatures at once — the spontaneity of the moment the shutter snaps + the much longer period spent building the sets + the years weathered into the items as they sat around his yard. In Bondi’s collage theology, every time shift further mutates the original meaning of elements he’s already adapted from their original function.”
—Scott Dickensheets in Double Scoop: Arts in Nevada April 2023
Knock-off Whiffle Balls were decorative elements on the Jigglator, a BRC project from 2009. Over succeeding years I re-used them in a succession of pool sets. At the same time, Congress forbade future use of lead-based paint in children’s toys. Also, more corn starch than in the past should be added to many products to assist fast decay in landfills. My inventory of the toys included old and new versions of the products. As they roasted in the sun beside the pool, non-lead based colors faded quickly and structural decay was marked and fast. The progression of decay became an aspect of the projects.
Predictive Analytics, 2007
The Dreamt of Polymer
2009
Nanotronics
2009-2018
Plastic belts were a good skirt for the base of the first Merry Go Down, a Burning Man project in 2008. They assisted the goal of visual amplification of the motion of the play. Also, perhaps the skirt would discourage people from crawling underneath the plate so their arms could be broken when the piece was in motion. Improbably this occurred now and then, not at Burning Man but when merry-go-rounds were standard attractions in children’s playgrounds.
I knotted and twisted the belts and incorporated them into pool sets. After a decade or so in the sun, the knotted belts were frozen in this shape, like cured leather. After using the belts as elements in sets, I separated the knotted belts from the sets and displayed them as free-standing sculptures.
I made a new piece comparing the knotted belts with samples of belts that I had kept out of the sun over this time. The new piece could not have been made except within this fifteen-to-twenty year timespan.
Data Decay
2008-2023
Ionization
2012
Cross Pollination
2004-2012
Dendrites, 2007-2017
at Core Gallery, 2024
The screens of plastic lizards and snakes were designed for “Kill the Earth”, a Burning man project for 2007. The screens had much more value as elements within photo sets, first in interior sets in 2007 and then in outdoor sets.
Over a dozen years these items too decayed in the sun, losing their color and detail. I recognized that I could do with these items what I had done earlier, mix the sunburned and melting snakes with fresh plastic reptiles that had been in storage indoors awaiting later usage. Again the result was work that could not have been produced except with a dozen years of development.
Kill the Earth at Burning Man 2007
Selected Wildlife of the Mojave Basin 2007-2017 (detail)
Selected Wildlife of the Mojave Basin
2007-2017
Primordial Soup
2003-2011
Sahara West Gallery 2017
