2000
60″ x 20″ x 30″
stainless steel, household dust, acrylic, insect colony

When I heard that household dust is mostly composed of shed human skin, I had to make this piece. It contains a year’s worth of vacuum dust from our home (so it’s really a family portrait) and includes numerous tiny toy parts, scraps of food wrappers, and even a long-lost small diamond. In the years since its creation, it has come to support a colony of very happy dust mites which leave ant-farm-like paths against the plastic window.

“Vacuum” was first displayed at the Sculpture 2000 show at the Robert McClain & Co. gallery in Houston in June, 2000.

• Sculpture