Professor Imin Yeh‘s installation “Phone Chargers” is now on view at Pittsburgh International Airport, Concourse C, through May 30. “Phone Chargers” is an extension of an ongoing practice in which Yeh collects printed ephemera, found objects, and everyday items and faithfully and laboriously recreates them using plain white paper.

These sculptures contain the lightness of their endearing qualities but without obligation to their original utility or intention. Yeh’s work implements repetitive handcraft and mimicry as a strategy for exploring the issues around the unseen labor and production that lie behind our many encounters with unconsidered, everyday objects.

“Within my work, one could read a cultural obsession and dependence upon connectivity,” says Yeh. “I think about how every home, office, or bag has a tangle of cords, assuring we remain powered up. Formally, the work is interested in abstracting the ubiquitous into line and shadow through an excessive accumulation. A tangle of white that disrupts the clean, all white wall space and is further magnified by the works lack of utility, despite being something we all need and depend upon.”