Beatrice Popoiu

Since the mid 80 s when my father took me to see secret treasures of routine life, NYC subway cars pregnant with graffiti; my work has entailed capturing the neglected imprints of heavy spirits. I tend to look for abandoned sites in industrial or urban settings, be it fences, homes, manufacturing plants or passing vehicles. When at a site, I like to imagine the previous inhabitants with all of their particular rituals, even if they existed for a split second. What caused a fence to tear? What made a beautiful grain silo become vacant? Where do trucks go? What do our mutual spatial intersections reveal about our habits? I search the site like a detective for clues and memories of previous activities and document them in cropped frames as my souvenirs.

 
An example of my earlier work Ribbed , 2003 documents a detail of an unattended fence on Kent Ave. You see layers of peeling paint, each one perhaps belonging to a different brush, a different time, and a poster coiled on itself saturated from rain and not enough glue. Another example of my work is Fe  2004 where I photographed an abandoned factory in LIC. Through one folded edge of the main sliding door you have a glimpse inside, a mysterious green window revealed.
 
I am currently working on a project documenting neglected sidewalks of NYC, capturing the retained prints of urban behaviors. I am interested in recording the threads that make up the pedestrian tapestries.
OK, 2008 C-Print 30 x 20 inches
WHITE PLAIN TRUCKER, 2008, C - Print, 18 x 24 inches
55 ON 59, 2008, C - Print, 18 x 24 inches
890, 2008, C - Print, 20 x 30 inches