Jars
The first jar I made was the Monkey Jar. I bought a sock monkey at the Tropicaire Flea Market in Miami, got baby shoes for it, then put it in a jar and filled that with Karo Syrup. Unfortunately it was destroyed coming back from a show. Happily I had photographed it, giving rise to the idea of having these sculptures exist only as images. The Jars, with their pickled submerged contents, suggest art as a form of preservation. Because they are filled with liquid, they also function as lenses. This physical property is mirrored in the action of a camera "lensing", or capturing and preserving a moment. Some of the jars have living creatures in them to convey the transient nature of the object. (No creatures were harmed in the creation of these pieces). By choosing to have the sculptures exist only as images, these pictures address the issue of object displacement and the way we experience much of life indirectly, online, filtered through the media, and printed images. These are all small edition 24 x 20" and 10 x 8" C-Prints.

All works © Mark DeMuro.