Found Art in Parking Garage (November 2024 - March 2025 )

 Untitled - Found art object - 2024 - Artist Unknown 

This art installation has been at my college since November. It is a simple pair of nail clippers, vibrantly decorated with a pink oval. The anonymous artist left it on a poll in one of the parking garages, and it has been making students, faculty, and staff ponder its true meaning for months.

The artist might be challenging the community to begin the simple act of noticing. Parking garages are places of transition; they are not meant for contemplation. When we arrive, our minds wander toward our destination and we think about what we will be doing at work or school. On the way back into the garage, our minds turn inward, homeward, such as what you might be eating for dinner. In this transition space, we usually go unchallenged, looking down at our phones, lost in our thoughts, or talking with colleagues or friends about our evening's plans. Maybe the artist is telling us, "Wait....not so fast"....the simple appearance of nail clippers, a common item in an uncommon place, can bring us out of our own heads and into questioning why this object was left here, put more broadly, why is anything, anywhere? 

Nail clippers are common objects, but they are also intimate. After all, you only share nail clippers with those you love; a stolen pair of nail clippers is almost as absurd as a stolen toothbrush. This item is perfectly usable and yet no one has taken it or thrown it away. The very idea of touching it is revolting but with a simple wash in alcohol, it would be clean. Nail clippers outside the context of a home are disconcerting. The piece makes viewers wrestle with its dual nature, completely normal and useful but also disturbingly disgusting; an item out of context is an item that does not belong. 

Last week, I came upon the installation to find it in an open position, ready to cut nails. Was it the artist, making another statement? Or was it another viewer, participating in the art?  I simply folded it back to its current position...there's no need to alarm anyone. 

I hope I can enjoy this absurdist art piece for months to come. 

Edit April 2025: It disappeared the last week of March.