Untitled (Mirrorshelf Collection)

Joe Yorty

This work started with the gathering - from thrift stores, yard sales and swap meets – of these hand-made wooden mirror/shelf things. I struggle to find or assign them a word - I've surrendered to coining my own term to describe them – mirrorshelf. I was first drawn to these objects for the tenderness that is evoked through their poor handicraft. It is apparent that these were made by students learning and honing the skills of carpentry or cabinetmaking (more than likely, junior high and high school woodshop students). I was also drawn to the pathos of the objects’ subsequent rejection and momentary internment in the spaces of the second–hand object economy. Through collecting these mirrorshelves I serve as an archivist (as I have in other projects) of an object typology that arguably is not in need of archiving.
After amassing several mirrorshelves over many months I faced the challenge of using these objects in a work of art. I came to the conclusion that I would make an object to occupy the space of the shelf. I made concrete blobs, cylinders and cubes and finished them with paint that was given to me or was purchased secondhand. These concrete forms solved the problem of the empty shelf with minimal effort - their crafting takes only a few minutes and the maker is even liberated from the daunting task of color selection. In a sense, they act as stand-ins for the objects (knick-knacks, souvenirs, keys, make–up, plants, etc.) that these mirrorshelves were meant to display/store. The "minimal effort" tchotke serves as a means to ask the viewer to consider why the mirrorshelf exists, where it originated and how/why this wood shop project genre has proliferated.

Joe Yorty was born and raised in the southwest corner of the state of Utah and spent his junior high and high school years in Escondido, California. Much of the time between then and now is filled with almost 11 years of service in the U.S. Navy. Along with being gainfully employed by the Department of Art, Architecture + Art History at the University of San Diego as their head studio technician Joe is currently in his third year as an MFA candidate in the Visual Arts department at UCSD where he is engaged in the development of an art practice that meaningfully integrates his obsession with second-hand shopping.