Professor Imin Yeh‘s site-specific installation “The Drawer of Extra Sauce” in on view at Grizzly Grizzly in Philadelphia on February 7 through March 1.
Recently, Yeh has been treasure hunting, although here the label of treasure has a subjective value. Collections of found objects, everyday detritus, and infrastructure embellishments are faithfully, laboriously replicated into paper sculptures. The recurrent material in these projects, paper, is chosen because in transforming from commonplace material into precious art object, it retains the human and bodily investment of time. It is the material of a childhood, a time when you could just make yourself everything that you wanted.
“The Drawer of Extra Sauce” features hundreds of handmade sculptures built out of paper, often hiding within plain site. Where the original objects all had a utility, whether big or small, Yeh’s 1:1 copy releases these objects from the burden, albeit slight, of having to do something. The intention of these copied objects is not to deceive, but the wish to reproduce out of endearment. Duplication is a way to continue to share the stories behind these coveted objects to new and immediate audiences; and each of these objects does have a story – of where they were discovered and how they were received as gifts.