The fifth 'book on the shelf' of Choice Mate, an iterative artwork by Bridget Kennedy, exploring the participatory aspects of objects, incorporating the viewer as participant to activate the artwork.
A memorial to human/landscape interaction, utilising notions of impermanence, disintegration and archive to challenge assumptions of cultural and material value, inspired by time spent at an historic gold mining town. The work explores fleeting moments of connection. Visitors who ‘mine’ the work leave their details to participate further. They’re contacted for an image of the souvenired object in its new location. A book is produced, forming a portrait of the small social network created with each installation, as it slowly disintegrates. This is added to a growing archive on a shelf originally consisting of only blank books, the social portrait feeding back into the artwork. These books become archive/ memorial to human interaction of the original artificial landscape. Ultimately all that’s left of the installation will be the archive.