Lost and Found: An Excavation Project

2005 Hempstead (Hempstead Branch) Long Island Rail Road

From afar the tower of luggage is puzzling but get closer and you see that the luggage is cast in bronze and colored in a natural patina. The multi-faceted installation includes special cast bronze seating and memorabilia that speaks to the community's heritage and memories. Among the Long Island-related items are an edition of Newsday featuring the Islanders winning the Stanley Cup, an NBA basketball (Julius Erving was from nearby Roosevelt), a Jets football reflecting the team practices at Hofstra University, and yearbooks from Hempstead High School highlighting community events, such as Martin Luther King's address to students from the high school in 1968. Ron Baron refers to himself as a "cultural archaeologist," culling everyday objects from streets and sidewalks, thrift shops, and garage sales. He then forms monumental, "geological" constructs of his finding, which transform the old objects into something completely new.