Mixed-Media Assemblage

Overview

EZRA examines how identity forms through accumulation rather than depiction. At its center is a terracotta head acquired from Jeff’s Warehouse for its physical resemblance to the fictional character Ezra Dager. Behind it, a French needlepoint landscape establishes the character’s psychological environment, expanding into a metal field of Instax photographs documenting nature encountered across the artist’s life—from Indiana, Copenhagen, Hawaiʻi, and beyond. Together, these photographs form an accumulated Fieldwork archive whose subject matter is determined not by geography, but by the psychological landscape established beneath it. At the center of this field, a Point outdoor sign and a Braun desk clock form an exclamation point. Two magnets prevent the clock’s hands from advancing, freezing time while leaving the alarm permanently armed so that sound itself may function as a signal of recognition. Above the assemblage hangs the first artwork ever purchased by the artist, discovered at a yard sale in Boulder, Colorado, at the age of thirteen and carried with him ever since. Together, these independent components retain their own histories while constructing the conditions through which the character becomes recognizable. EZRA does not represent an identity. It performs its formation.

Metadata

Artist
Seth / Ezra Dager

Year
2025–2026

Medium
Mixed-Media Assemblage

Status
Complete

Archive
Human Archive

Location
The Rigley Field

Components
Terracotta head from Jeff’s Warehouse; custom metal stand; French needlepoint landscape; metal panel with Instax Fieldwork photographs; Point outdoor sign; Braun desk clock; magnets; metallic circular pin; green circular pin; Hidden NY “H” pin; painting acquired at a yard sale in Boulder, Colorado.