In this installment of two recent videos by Jan Staller, the artist reflects on consumerism and waste in contemporary society through works that trace the life of everyday, material objects. CYCLE grew out of a 2007 assignment from Fortune magazine to document a recycling facility in San Francisco. His three-channel video installation depicts a seemingly endless flow of ordinary trash such as plastic milk cartons, loose paper, and metal cans tumbling by his camera. SAVED, in contrast, presents a visual catalogue of objects Staller has carefully accumulated over the years. Items like an expired driver’s license, own stuffed animals, and old tools unfold as a series of quick still shots.

Played as counterparts to one another in a continuous, alternating loop, CYCLE and SAVED offer contrasting perspectives on the afterlife of objects. Together these videos meditate on what we choose to keep, what we throw away, and what happens to the objects we consume.