Y(OURS)

A solo exhibition at Irvine Fine Arts Center (CA), 2016.


“So what is yours? Conversely, what, really, is mine?

Lindsay Buchman’s Y(OURS) purposefully challenges our basic perceptions of self. In probing the complex social construction of what we blithely refer to as ownership, she excavates some of our more powerful and conflicted impulses.  

In her exploration of the uncharted boundary between the personal and the public, Buchman asks that we examine our subconscious perceptions of I and we. The lines between them may be blurrier than one imagines. Indeed, personal identity is perceivable only within community. Private exists only in a public landscape. Y(OURS) oscillates  between the two, and its thesis is compelling: Wouldn’t both self-interest and altruism encourage the cultivation of both realms? Y(OURS) is a contemplative landscape for this worthwhile reflection. 

Long dissertations could be written about the ‘tragedy of the commons,’ or the reward centers stimulated in our brains when we shop, or the commoditization of almost everything. As market theorists seductively tell us, there is power and sovereignty in owning. It is a way of projecting information about ourselves. It is, we hear, liberating to purchase and to possess.

But Y(OURS) elevates this conversation. What is privately owned, we discover, is constantly engaged with – and in conflict with – what is publicy shared. In a psychological sense, Y(OURS) becomes ours. She dares to ask if we can assign value to something – not by owning it in the conventional understanding – but by giving it time and attention. Can we absorb the possessions of others? Can we ‘possess’ through reflection? Through love? She poses a profound and liberating question: Is that kind of possession more rewarding? This mechanism is as conceptually challenging as it is edifying. In Buchman’s world the public sphere is not in conflict with, but enriches the private, and she dares to intimate that stewardship is more rewarding than ownership.”  

^{[IT WAS]}
second order desire for breakfast again

^{[THINGS FORGOTTEN]}
The mail. The laundry. The groceries.
Your number but not your words; directions but never the lavender yellow sky.

Y(OURS), a collaborative publication, was published in conjunction with the exhibition. The book features text and image contributions from ten perspectives—spanning disciplines from history, philosophy, architecture, public policy, and visual art. Through examining collective consciousness, the publication locates itself within a communal topography. Meditating on the concept of intellectual property, the right of ownership, and the role of the individual within public and private thought, Y(OURS) posits that what is privately possessed is not separate from what is publicly governed.

Published in collaboration with the Common Press at the University of Pennsylvania.

^{Laser-print with softcover, 9.25 in. x 6.25 in., edition 300, 2016}

^{All text / images © Lindsay Buchman, David DiLeo, Heather M. O'Brien, Rob Brown, Matt Neff, Haigen G. Pearson, Kaitlin Kylie Pomerantz, Leyla Marandi, Rachel Arena, Kevin Berry.}

Image Descriptions

^{1    Ch 4: Second-order desire for breakfast again, risograph & laser print, 2016 
2    Ch 4: Undelivered; Ch 4 Things Forgotten (part one & two), risographs, 2016}

^{3    Ch 4: Things Forgotten (part two), risograph, 2016}

^{4    Ch 5: 454 Seaton Street (part two), risograph, 2015}

^{5    Ch 5: 454 Seaton Street (part one), risograph, 2015}

^{6    Ch 6: SR-95, risograph & laser print, 2015}

^{7    Ch 4: Things Forgotten (part one), risograph, 2015}

^{8    Ch 6: SR-95, risograph, 2015}

^{9    Ch 5: 4th Street, digital image from risograph, 2016}

^{10  Ch 4: I-5; Ch 6: NJ Transit; Ch 5: 4th Street, digital images from risographs, 2016}

^{11   Words free of charge, risographs, 2015}

^{12   Y(OURS), exhibition installation, Irvine Fine Arts Center, 2016}