‘Deconstruction’
(2016 – Ongoing)

‘Demolition’, as a term, is now outmoded. With civic governments requiring the demolition of buildings to be more sustainable and the increase in the percentage of recycled construction materials, ‘demolition’ has been reborn as, ‘deconstruction’.

In the fast-paced real estate market that is Vancouver, land assemblies and buildings with “too much air” above them are being razed at an ever-increasing rate. The photographic project, ‘Deconstruction’ captures this activity mid-stream, creating images that are both documentary and abstract. As the process of deconstruction is slower than traditional demolition, opportunities arise to capture the inner structures of buildings, and the remains of its former purpose.

‘Deconstruction’ shares many similar aspects to my previous work, ‘Pyres’, wherein, the image is but a document of what I like to consider as the, “unintended artistry of the excavator operator”. The excavator operator acts as a curator of construction debris, categorizing the valuable recyclable materials – concrete, rebar, metal, and wood – into discrete piles, while slowly picking away at the building itself. By making photographs during the deconstruction process, it is as though I have captured the building while caught in the act between being, and not being, simultaneously revealing the mysteries of its construction in its deconstruction.