By ALISON TULLY Special to the Daily Press
SANTA MONICA A photography exhibit that opened at the UnUrban Coffeehouse Saturday night shows that everyday junk can be a work of art.
“Short of pouring Lucite in these junk drawers, I figured there wasn’t any other way of preserving these things,” the photographer Richard Gilbert, 39, of Seattle said about choosing junk drawers as his subject.
The photos show 15 junk drawers from peoples’ homes where scrap and garbage are usually kept,some more organized than others. One drawer, for example, holds tissues, a tape measure, a timer, glue, playing cards, rubber bands and a small container of hand sanitizer.
Gilbert said that he decided to do the project after finding a childhood Beatles trading card when he cleaned out his own drawer at home.“Finding the card reminded me that these drawers need to be recorded and preserved.”
Finding inspiration in the ordinary has struck Gilbert in the past. Watching silent pictures as a kid led him to the world of still photography. It was after receiving an M.A. in urban planning from the University of Washington that Gilbert felt inspired to put together the junk drawer series, which has the feel of a photograph.
This is the third exhibit for Gilbert, but the first in California. He said that the junk drawer series evolved from five small black and white photographs in 2002 to the 15 hanging in the gallery.
“I shot the most recent drawers all over labor day weekend,” he said. “At one point I had five or six junk drawers in my car.”
“The drawers are kind of like a historic preservation,” Gilbert said. “They are a documentary of life, a band of lost objects.”
UnUrban’s Art Curator Joella March said that it was Gilbert’s unique imagery and professionalism that attracted her to his work.
“I view Richard’s junk drawers as memory portraits,” she said. “But instead of blurry and unclear,these objects that hold perhaps years of memories are articulated clear and crisp so every beautiful detail of color,texture and form can be fully appreciated by all those who look.”
Onlookers like Silvert Glaram were also impressed by Gilbert’s work. “I was a little skeptical at first, but I think they are really cool,” he said. “They show the detail and minutia of everyone’s lives, it just hits home. Everyone has the same junk.”
The drawers in the exhibition belong to Gilbert’s friends. He said that most people were open to the idea but one person had a particular kinship with his drawer.
“This guy told me he needed his drawer back as soon as possible. He had left a hammer in there and wanted it back in case he needed to use it later that day.”
The exhibit will be on display at the UnUrban Coffeehouse until March 20.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 2, 2007. Read the original PDF.