I looked like this once. I look different now, but you might still recognize me.
 
I do not remember the time of my birth, neither the days or the hours or the months which surrounded it. I know myself as I am now. I remember some time into the past and anticipate some moments into the future.
That is what is about me.
About Me, About You, About Us, About Time
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© 1998, Clayton Moraga — Mauritania Trading Company — All Rights Reserved.
 
You, and I, and everything else will eventually be prepared for storage and shipping. The only variable is content and duration.
 
The Mauretania’s dimensions were 232.3m x 26.8m x 18.6m. Mauritania’s area is 1,030,700 sq km. The Mauretania is an excellent idea for shipping people and cargo; however it quickly became obsolete, was reduced to scrap and now its constituent elements are scattered throughout the world. Mauritania is a dry, desolate country whose climate and geography haven’t changed for millennia, yet its conceptual definition is constantly changing. The Mauretania is gone forever and will never change. Mauritania will always be here and will never be the same.
 
How does time effect art? If an artist attempts to incorporate an idea into an object, does that help in the persistence of the idea? Or does this action guarantee the distortion and loss of integrity of the idea over time? The fat that Joseph Beuys incorporated into his art is carefully preserved by the individuals and institutions who own his work. The fat incorporated into Joseph Beuys’ brain has not been preserved, but some residual pattern of that brain endures in his work.
 
An artist creates his work and launches it into the infinite sea of time. Deep within the layers of this metaphorical ship’s superstructure are the values, desires, and beliefs of the architect and his shipyard milieu, crated and stowed away. So what does it take to get this moving? And once it is moving, how far can it go and how long will it take? What will happen to it in transit and where will it eventually come to rest?
Exploring the accretion of conceptual layers that manifest the seductive mystery of implied narrative and its impact on the perceptual evolution and physical survival of art objects over time.
 
The Mauritania Trading Co.
1200 Franklin Mall
Box No. 352
Santa Clara, Calif. 95050
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