Place no. 2 – Fine Tuned Hobbies

DOUGLAS SCHOLES

Updated: Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Location: Fine Tuned Hobbies
407 – 2nd Avenue South, behind the building, access via the alley
Go to map
Duration: September 4 – 26, 2009

Place no.2 before cleaning

Friday, September 4th, 2009

The mission that day was to clean and remove from the site the weeds and the garbage mixed with dirt.  Before starting, I checked with the owner of Fine Tuned Hobbies to see about getting his garbage bin unlocked.  Unfortunately, his key for the lock was at home so he told me to use the bin across the alley form his.  I don’t think he was aware how much refuse was in his yard because when we finished that bin (about 4′ (h) x 6′ (l) x 2.5′ (w)) was loaded to overflowing.  I did have a feeling that it was not the right thing to do but ignored the intuition and continued with the plan to clean the yard, with the help of Nicolas de Cosson.  After about an hour of heavy lifting, strenuous scraping and sweeping and weed pulling we got the yard cleaner than it had ever been, I am sure.

(Photos: Nicolas de Cosson)

(Photos: Nicolas de Cosson)

(Photos: Nicolas de Cosson)

(Photos: Nicolas de Cosson)

(Photos: Nicolas de Cosson)

(Photos: Nicolas de Cosson)

(Photos: Nicolas de Cosson)

The photo below shows how much crap we pulled out of the yard, but, unfortunately, there is no image of the bin after all the dirt was piled on top.

(Photos: Nicolas de Cosson)

The site was spotless, well pretty much so.

(Right photo: Doug Scholes - Left photo: Nicolas de Cosson)

Sunday, September 6th, 2009

I returned to the gallery that afternoon intending on preparing images from the past week and updating the web site. I no sooner got settled when the owner of the garbage bin that we fill two days prior called to complain that his tenants had no place to put their garbage and that the city was going to charge him a fine (I don’t know how much exactly) as they would have to use a bigger machine to lift the now very heavy bin.  Needless to say he did not want to discuss the issue and I agreed immediately to empty the bin asap.  I called for some help and Ryan Doherty came with a wheelbarrow and two nose shovels.  It was very windy and as we were digging out the bin the garbage and dirt was flying around and causing a big mess.  We got a garbage can and some large green plastic bags from the gallery and started to bag the garbage, which reduced the amount of debris flying about.

As is stands now, about 2/3’s of the dirt & garbage mix is back in the yard from where it came.  It will likely remain until the owner of Fine Tuned Hobbies can slowly remove it by placing small amounts in his garbage bin over the next several weeks.  In the mean time, I have made a mold of two cigarette cartons, a Doritos chip bag and a toothbrush (found during the clean-up) and have started to cast the beeswax multiples.  I plan to have the Monument installed by Friday, September 11th.

(Photos: Ryan Doherty)

Friday, September 11, 2009

I finally completed enough casting to install the monument on the site.  I had found a Doritos chip bag, two cigarette boxes and a toothbrush.  Once cast in beeswax I placed them (24 of each item) on the concrete pad above the (re)piled dirt and garbage.  I treated the space more formally and decided to place the beeswax pieces in a more or less uniformed pattern as the objects I chose to cast were not the best for stacking and piling.

Monday, September 14th, 2009

After I visited Place no. 1 (Savill) I went to the place behind Fine Tuned Hobbies (they are in fact in the same alley).  There I found to my great surprise the monument totally and utterly destroyed.  There remained only scant scatterings of broken pieces of wax.  Whoever was responsible for the destruction must have taken beeswax away with them as there wasn’t enough remnant pieces to make up the amount of wax that was the monument.  Once again outside forces have forced me to terminate the work on this site.  I do not have the time (nor the energy) to go back and cast enough for another monument.