Archival pigment print, 11 x 8.5 in., unframed, edition of 24, 2020. DescriptionConsistent with a practice of gathering and photographing refuse, this straight photograph depicts a discarded and heavily corroded can that was collected and later documented on a copy stand in the studio. By isolating the object from its surroundings and presenting it against a neutral field, the can is allowed to stand forward as form, texture and color. Its compressed geometry, embossed base, and oxidized surface register the physical effects of time, environment, and use. What was once a common container of nourishment appears as a residual structure whose surface now carries the visible record of its passage from utility to artifact. Artist's statementLike all cans, this object began as one of countless identical units produced for circulation and consumption. Through abandonment, weathering, and recovery, that multiplicity is gradually undone. The mass-produced container—originally defined by repetition, branding, and function—transitions into a singular object whose identity is no longer determined by the marketplace. By collecting and isolating the can and documenting it in the studio, the work registers this transformation: the anonymous remainder of a provision becomes a unique artifact, carrying the accumulated marks of time in place of the brand that once defined it. In similar photographs of beverages, the commercial identity of the can—its brand and implied market value—remains legible and functions as an entry point into the logic of consumer culture. Unknown Can extends this process into a new condition. Corrosion has erased the label and with it the product’s former identity, leaving only the structural trace of a vessel that once held some form of sustenance.
