Mixed-Media Assemblage

Overview

Carry On is an assemblage built from objects that once carried the artist through everyday life. A TWA Hotel canvas tote anchors the work, not as luggage but as a container of accumulated history. Inside are three textiles spanning three generations: a wool blanket kept by the artist’s mother throughout his childhood, a blanket purchased together with her at Sunny’s Pop, and a quilt designed with his grandmother and gifted for his wedding. Rather than functioning as domestic objects, they become layers of biography compressed into a single vessel.

Attached throughout the work are handwritten data frames held in place by Penco clips—the same hardware language used throughout Becoming, Discovering, and Curating. Each identifies an individual object, its provenance, and its soundtrack, transforming the bag into a portable archive rather than a collection of belongings. Clipped to the front pocket is an oversized orange clothespin from the artist’s childhood, securing another pair of data frames while simultaneously becoming part of the composition itself. A Bang & Olufsen carabiner and Keith Haring key ring extend the vocabulary of travel, movement, and memory.

Resting above the blankets is a Hidden NY sock monkey. While materially consistent with the surrounding textiles, its role is deliberately different. It functions as an invitation—an object whose familiarity attracts the viewer before quietly redirecting attention toward the network of stories surrounding it. Like many recurring brands within EZRA, Hidden NY becomes another stable material language that carries continuity across otherwise unrelated works.

Carry On proposes that identity is not something contained within a single object, but something accumulated through the objects that accompany a life. Here, the suitcase is absent. Only what was worth carrying remains.

Metadata

Artist
Seth / Ezra Dager

Year
2025–2026

Medium
Mixed-Media Assemblage

Status
Complete

Archive
Human Archive

Location
The Rigley Field

Components
TWA Hotel canvas tote bag; Bang & Olufsen carabiner; Keith Haring key ring; oversized childhood clothespin; Penco clips; handwritten data frames; Sunny’s Pop blanket purchased with the artist’s mother; quilt designed with the artist’s grandmother and gifted for the artist’s wedding; wool blanket belonging to the artist’s mother; Hidden NY sock monkey.