195 Yachts, Barges, Cargo Lines, Tankers, and Other Ships by Jenny Odell

Wednesday greetings to you all, collector friends!

Today's edition is a 180 on yesterday's, which had us looking up at the stars and creating constellations of our own. I'm ever-so-pleased to debut 195 Yachts, Barges, Cargo Lines, Tankers, and Other Ships, our first edition from San Francisco-based artist, designer and fellow-obsessive Jenny Odell, who is looking down (albeit virtually) and creating impossible-in-the-real world collations of common structures culled from satellite imagery.

I've clocked a lot of hours up in the air over the past several years and the truth is that I've never been very good at it. Still, one thrill that never fails me is looking down from above and watching a sprawling city become small; its buildings, roads and cars shrinking down into little bits that I'd need to pick up gingerly between two fingers so as to not break them. It's easy to imagine then, an Alice in Wonderland-type inversion, with a giant Jenny reaching to Australia to pluck the perfect tanker for her palette.

Illusions of airborne omnipotence aside, I also find it easy to identify with the hours upon hours of scouring that must have gone in to collecting and arranging all these parts into the glorious whole you see here. (cf. me on Twitter at 1 a.m.). Jenny's speaking my language when she talks of "explor[ing] the (dis-)connection between virtual space and lived experience." I share Jenny's abiding obsession with Google Maps, but I've never put it to such beautiful use.

Sara and I deliberated whether the photos in this series should be released as 8x10s. We agreed with a hearty "Si!" as the photos in this series are almost different pictures entirely when viewed at various sizes -- so much so that I can see hanging graduated sizes of the same piece. As the dimensions of the print grow, the fact that the objects in it are sourced from all over the internet moves to the forefront. As some objects soften and pixelate, the shift in appearance puts the focus on her process and the origins of the elements that make the whole. The effect is not unlike Kent Rogowski's Love=Love series. As his images of repurposed puzzles increase in size, so do the gaps between each piece; fine lines, initially a by product of the process become black marks, increasing in their weight and importance.

Rearranging and re-using objects and the creation of unexpected order is something wholly satisfying -- and often aesthetically pleasing. Things Organized Neatly, the site via which I discovered Ms. Odell's series, amply illustrates my point. As does our very own Lisa Congdon's amazing, and yes maybe a wee bit obsessive, Collection a Day project, some of which will appear on this very site as editions in the not-too-distant future. Plus, as I said above, 195 Yachts, Barges, Cargo Lines, Tankers, and Other Ships is the first edition from Jenny's series -- you can look forward to seeing more of them here before year's end. (Did I just talk about the end of 2010? Already. Egad!) There's plenty of other great art queued and waiting between now and then. Speaking of which! Set your phone/computer/alarm clock and/or put the butler on notice for Monday, October 18th at 11a.m. (Eastern time, y'all) for our hotly anticipated David Byrne to benefit Creative Time debut.