The shots for this project were taken in Santiago, Chile. Chilean hardware stores are located in vast warehouses in which small businesses house inventories comprising a multitude of objects laid out in a riot of colours, rhythms, shapes and materials. They display endless accumulations of the tools we use to build cities and art. In this project, I am addressing utility as an image and tools as a metaphor. These images bring to mind computer-enhanced compositions. However, in this case “digital perception” is trumped by reality, because the images are not computer-modified; they simply appear that way. This fascinates me and it is precisely this encounter of the organic and the digital that I have attempted to bring across.

The photographs show objects and not the stores that house them. The short depth of field “thickens” the object plane. Rhythm, shape, lighting and colour emphasize pictorial qualities. Serial shots activate the relationship between accumulation and repetition.