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Image Credit: "Smashed Glass" by Jessica Alpern

Guest blogger and Austin-based photographer Jessica Alpern discusses her recent work, Useless, in which she offers new visions of everyday objects.  As she explains, "This collection is a look at common object, made or found, that no longer serve their purpose due to damage, defect or the inevitability of time."  More from the artist after the jump.

Image Credit: "Wax" by Jessica Alpern

The following is from Alpern herself:

Two common themes in my work are identity and materialism.  Having moved excessively in both my childhood and adult life, I've devoted many hours to acquiring and discarding the detritus of everyday living (dishes, furniture, bed linens, etc.), transferring things that filled utilitarian needs, leaving behind those no longer served a purpose.

Image Credit: "Tape" by Jessica Alpern

Exploring Kafka's notion that "The meaning of life is death," [in Useless] I took particular interest in objects that were rendered useless through use; being destroyed by performing the very function for which they were created.

Image Credit: "Gum" by Jessica Alpern

The images are unexpectedly organic but are not intended as abstracts.  Rather they are a close look at an object that has itself, become an abstraction.  Watching these man-made entities transitioning from one form to another feels something akin to witnessing Pinocchio become a real boy.

Image Credit: "Pencil 2" by Jessica Alpern

Despite being at the end of its necessity, it has not reached the end of its existence.  It's simply moved beyond the familiar.  photographing these objects during that transition feels like a celebration of potential as well as a final record before the destruction, recycling, repurposing, disbursing of its parts makes it unrecognizable.

Image Credit: "Pencil" by Jessica Alpern