Gently Used (2018)
TV broadcast (45:00)
collaboration with Zoë Chao
Provincetown TV
Recorded in the basement of our childhood home, my sister and I sell hoarded family belongings, interviewing my parents and recounting the social histories of each item. An improvisational and endurance-based exercise, we take on the absurd task of generating monetary value and appeal for these junk items through sustained banter and dialogue. The work explores personal questions of social aspiration, material excess, sustainability, and family history, while also serving as a genuine attempt to deaccession and question our enduring attachment to things.
As a mechanism of decluttering, the work was not entirely successful: a few items sold to strangers on eBay while several others were re-purchased through the online bidding system by my parents, who found that the work renewed their interest in these forgotten objects. In fact, during the first exhibition of this work, my father managed to acquire a new table that was property of the gallery and used for the installation. I paid my parents back for the cost of their bids and did not make a profit.
Hosts: Zoë Chao, Maia Chao
Special Guests: Sue Carroll, Bruce Chao
Videography: Daniel Stern
Video Editing: Maia Chao
Funding: Fine Arts Work Center Residency
Broadcasting: Provincetown TV