USED
BY SARA MERZ

They say one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. It’s certainly an inescapable truth that we have to learn looking very closely at what we throw away and if there’s yet another life in it or not.

In my series USED, I want to playfully bring together found objects — natural and manufactured ones — some of them fruits of nature, some others thrown away as garbage.

Uniting them in still lives, I want to elevate all of the items to the same level of grace and curiosity and challenge the viewer to discover it in all of them as well, despite their origin or initial purpose.

In time, flowers wither and fruits rot, objects are considered useless or without appeal. It simply takes a sense of wonder and appreciation for the odd — for everything to remain beautiful.