The first assignment in one of my favorite classes was to take paper materials out of the trash and turn it into something new. I chose to play with the meaning of what thrown away meant to me at the time. Friendships were crashing left and right around me and that left a small collection of memorabilia from our experiences together. This piece turned into one of drawing from a mental bin of things to archive, things that should be in the recycle bin.
I opened up my drawers to reclaim crumpled and hidden away objects. A collage of bits and pieces, I taped them to the inside of the sleeve to a hardcover copy of Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse by Lucas Klauss. The cover art depicted a blaze of fire. Everything inside was meant to “burn.” Or at least they were all signs of the metaphorical apocalypse. The artifacts from left to right are as follows: 1. A photograph from one of the first nights at university. I used to have it taped up over my desk. 2. Post-Its taken down from my dorm’s shoutout wall. 3. Personally addressed letter from a friend and supporter back home. 4. A ring given to me by my best friend. We called each other “husband.” Before me, it was meant to go to his ex-girlfriend. 5. A pair of extra Metrocards for you and a partner in crime. They need to be refilled. 6. Valentine’s Day rosegrams. I saved the notes attached to flowers that were long dead. 7. DnD business card. The boys wanted to take over the campaign and create an in-universe credit union.
During critique, the professor asked if we were going to keep our creations. A little too quickly I said that it’d have to come apart - the book cover came from the dorm “library.” I should’ve just kept it. That dorm doesn’t exist anymore.
