NARRATOR:  

In this piece San Francisco artist David Ireland presents us with what looks a bit like a bathroom vanity. If you were to sit on the stool, however, instead of seeing yourself in a mirror, you’d be looking at ten year’s worth of cardboard cores from rolls of toilet paper. David Ireland: 

DAVID IRELAND:  

This piece is directly inspired by some other kind of serial-like pieces that I had done. When I bought the house at 500 Capp Street I found that there were collections of things that were evidence of social systems– that is, something that comes with some regularity, perhaps every day. The newspaper comes, and if you collect the newspapers, after a while you get a quantity. The quantity starts to represent a shape. So I have a broom collection, I have a rubber band collection, I have a dried pear collection. Most of these things, by the way, were inherited by me from the previous owner of the house. I just sort of identified them and brought them into some focus. In a similar way, I decided to add some social systems of my own. And so here is a look at what ten years of the core of a normal roll of toilet paper revealed here. And I think it has a curious look to it, like a honeycomb, as well.  

NARRATOR:  

For Ireland, the process of renovating an old house became a process of discovery and revelation. It ended in making the entire building, as well as its contents, into various works of art.