Penelope Umbrico recreates pieces using the collection of various found objects, taken out of context, and put into a new structure.  This one, entitled “Embarrassing Books,” is prefaced by the following statement by the artist:

“Embarrassing Books are re-photographed details of bookcases in home-improvement and décor websites and magazines that have their books turned spine in. Only someone who is deeply embarrassed by the content of his or her books would turn them around this way – or, perhaps, these books have turned themselves this way because they are embarrassed by their owners. In the never-ending variety of perfectly appointed, vapidly flawless rooms in these virtual spaces, this refusal of content actually makes sense. Subservient to the decorative, these books have become nutrition-less, emptied of purpose and content, and erased of meaning – a sedated empty exchange which produces a valueless object from the apparition of an object of value.”

Filed under: Art, Design by cassietregellas