The Temporary Photographic Archive Office (TPAO) proposes new archival methods for the Elsewhere Museum. The TPAO collects, scans, and shares photographic ephemera from the Elsewhere library—Polaroids, postcards, 4x6” prints, etc. By caring for these objects through digitization, archiving, and dissemination, the TPAO justifies more permanent, interactive methods of conservation for the Museum (permanence being a relative term). At the surface, the TPAO scanned, organized, and digitally shared photographic prints. On a deeper level, the TPAO chose to subvert the Museum’s pre-existing curatorial philosophy. This is to say that the Museum has previously taken an ambivalent approach to their collection, simultaneously enforcing strict rules regarding the former thrift store objects while allowing artist creations to degrade. The TPAO shifts that focus from out-of-circulation consumer products to human interactions—both human-to-human and human-to-object. The TPAO revises the Elsewhere story or rather reinterprets their history as people-centric.

Craig Deppen Auge (Kansas City, MO) | Exchange (Kansas City) | August 2021

This work, which spans across the top of the front and back stairwells to the second floor, is an exploration of form, pattern and scale, as well as a contemplative remark. Images of these chairs were cut from a collection of 60 Italian furniture catalogs which were sourced from the Records Room Archive. They exist as remnants form the Carolina Sales Company, one of the latter day businesses here, predating the museum. The crosscut pattern itself acts as an invocation, perhaps inviting roaming spirits a place to rest, similar to the “haint blue” as a There is also a reminder here to take time and just be still with yourself amongst the dazzling cacophony of the collection, though ultimately that rest and meditation is illusive. The work also reminds us to stay aware of the many multiples found within the collection, and that, in fact, multiples of an object or image are the very definition of a collection.