Relational Assemblage

Overview

Sonia emerged through proximity rather than prior design. The work developed gradually within a corner of The Rigley Field, where a translucent glass mannequin head wearing a more than 150-year-old Japanese paper mask sits beneath a Stefano Pilati-designed beach towel. To the left, a Hermès silk carré and navy bandana hang from simple wooden hooks; to the right, a steel panel holds a field of Instax photographs preserving a shared archive of memories that, within the work, become Sonia’s contextual field. Beneath them, a series of handwritten Data Frames is arranged as an exclamation point, grounding those memories in provenance while extending one of Ezra’s recurring structural forms into the work itself. Wood, silk, glass, paper, steel, magnets, photography, and handwriting remain visibly distinct, yet each material helps stabilize the others. The assemblage therefore does not merely describe the artist’s relationship with Sonia; it behaves as that relationship does. Independent elements retain their own identities while forming a structure of support, memory, orientation, and care. Sonia does not represent a relationship. It performs one.

Metadata

Artist
Seth / Ezra Dager

Year
2025–2026

Medium
Relational Assemblage

Status
Complete

Archive
Human Archive

Location
The Rigley Field

Components
Translucent glass mannequin head; more than 150-year-old Japanese paper mask; Stefano Pilati-designed beach towel; Hermès silk carré; navy bandana; wooden wall hooks; steel panel; Instax photographs; magnets; handwritten Data Frames arranged as an exclamation point; draped textile pedestal.