an exhibition about material, using materials exclusively from SUPPLY Victoria Creative Reuse Centre

possible lenses for impossible scales explores the incomprehensible accumulation of material that inhabits the globe by mining hyperlocal materials sourced from SUPPLY Victoria Creative Reuse Centre. Through a series of playful scenarios and object interactions the works make use of materials that SUPPLY Victoria has helped to divert from the landfill in order to frame and recontextualize masses that grow exponentially each day. 

The installation presents a selection of materials that ask to be considered. The general concept of framing guided the approach to thinking about and working with these lightly used forms. Scale shifts and the overt acknowledgment of quantities provide new lenses through which to see these mundane, and sometimes obsolete, materials. With a few exceptions (namely tape, stickers and vinyl), the materials used have been unaltered and remain usable. 

This work was created on-site at The Vault Gallery from August 7–11, 2024. Materials were carried from SUPPLY Victoria — just a short walk away. The final result shows only a very small selection of the materials that were considered in the process. The many materials at SUPPLY Victoria are only a very small selection of the waste we collectively contribute to the world of unused things. In making these few materials visible, the exhibition encourages material awareness and contemplation, without blame. We are all complicit in consumption, but we can work toward crafting a sustainable future. 

On August 16, 2024 the installation was disassembled and all materials returned to SUPPLY Victoria to be added back to their available material inventory.

Rachel Ferber is an interdisciplinary artist, designer and educator based in Cleveland, OH. Her work explores the sticky sides of power, performance and sustainability through the lens of commodified private space. Ferber holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, and a BFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art. In addition to her studio, she runs an experimental natural dye project called The Dye Bath, and is one half of the art and design initiative, NEW NEW NEW.