butts

2023-ongoing

On a cross-country road trip from Los Angeles, CA to Charlotte, NC I left a trail of ceramic cigarette butts at various truck stops, gas stations, fast food restaurants, casinos, and other places that are usually thought of as mundane (if thought about much at all). Sometimes I documented where I left the butts (see screenshots from my Instagram below), but more often than not I was placing these bits of detritus around 4 in the morning and didn’t pull out the phone every time. The goal of this project is not a selfie of me doing a quirky thing, but rather this is an experiment in leaving pieces of art out in the world for others to interact with without me.

This is an ongoing series, as I continue to leave a trail of cigarette butts in my wake when traveling. I prefer to road-trip to destinations when possible, because I think I dissociate through life far too much as it is. I want to literally feel the length of the drive and the roughness of the pavement as I witness the mundane and the spectacle that is the American landscape.