We preserve what is precious to us. Mementos which connect us to experiences and people long gone, odd little objects which excite our imagination, things which give us a sense of stability in the midst of uncertainty; attached to walls, placed on shelves, stacked away in boxes, caught up in the wake of our lives in motion.

 

To make a work of art is to create one of these objects and set them into the stream of time. These objects attach themselves to people and become a part of their lives. But how is that attachment made? A person goes to an auction or a gallery, sees what they want and purchase it. At an auction, the work does not go to the person who most appreciates it, it goes to the person who can bid the most. There is a disconnect between the intimacy of preciousness invoked and the person to whom the artwork becomes attached. If a work of art is to persist over time it must become attached to the one person who values it the most.

 

The exploration of this idea is one of the foundations of The Mauritania Trading Company. The preservation of art over time and how that can be achieved through the tactics of the imposition of mystery, the seductive implications of layers of discovery and the serendipitous opportunities implicit in dispersal disconnected from commercial priorities.

All proceeds go to support the artist.

The framed manifesto is currently residing in an abandoned freight elevator. The boxed tool has spent the last 11 years in the support frame of a carport behind a dentist’s office.