Drywall is Forever

2019 (November)
Performa 19, New York City
Installation (Completed)

An installation and performance lecture on the material lifespans of drywall.







In our work on exhibitions and installations, we have been struck by drywall as a funny material—producing an image of apparent newness and affective permanence while simultaneously being discarded again and again, piling up in dumpsters and contributing to the massive amount of C&D waste filling landfills internationally.

Looking closely at the surface of the museum wall and its history, we looked at alternate uses and applications of drywall. We built a white cube gallery out of discarded pieces from exhibitions closing around the city. Through the process, we created a new kind of subtle relief-decoration: puzzle pieces imprinting almost imperceptibly on the surface itself; a new white cube that records its own material make-up and a rejection of that space’s supposed neutrality.