Defacement is an installation and photographic body of work that investigates the impact of time on the context and materiality of a picture. The pictures are stills taken from two 100-foot, 16mm reels of family footage dating to the late 1940’s and found in an antique store in Jacksonville, Florida. Prints were made from selected scenes on the reels, then installed in the areas they pictured more than 70 years prior. The largely uninhabited and dilapidated spaces of downtown Jacksonville are a reminder that images, like buildings, have lives that rise and fall and often change in context.

Each picture is titled after the address where it was installed and possibly still located. The prints were pasted onto the buildings then left to decay in the harsh Florida climate and revisited after various periods of time, anywhere from three months to almost two years. The environments and people interact with the installations, making them a collaborative effort of the artist, time, and environment.