“Mapping Leaves” Leaves, Chalk, 2008.

In this piece I marked all of the leaves that had fallen on a path from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm.  I outlined the leaves in chalk and numbered them.  I collected the leaves into a bag and displayed them as the first part of the piece.  I wanted to document what is thought of as a temporary and short-lived moment to many people.  I wanted to focus on a moment that was constantly changing; even as I moved along the path within the three hours.

I wanted people to question why I was taking the time to record such a fleeting moment in such detail.  But what makes one thing more important than another?  Why do we spend hours writing in journals only to never read them again?  Why do we painstakingly makes lists of things we will never remember to do?

When the observers went outside to look at the marks, new leaves had already taken the place of the ones I had picked up.  I later released the numbered leaves back to their path such that they could continue on their own unpredictable path dictated by the wind and the shuffling of passing feet.  By nightfall, the marks had been erased by rain and no record (except for the photographs) of the mapping remained.