Discarded addresses class, segregation and the relationship between students, teachers, and the public school system within Arizona and the greater United States. School desks function as objects that personify an individual student from a particular era in history and serve as an anchor points that allow a broader narrative to emerge. By referencing the visual culture and educational climate from each district era, along with some of the teacher’s testimonies from personal interviews, the once nascent stories of a failing school system become visually and emotionally palpable.

This work is very personal as I have many family members and friends who are schoolteachers. Their knowledge and insight has informed much of the work. I personally had to transition between public and charter schools in Phoenix as a child, experiencing the disparity between them, and grew up hearing about the challenges and difficulties facing different schools and districts.

Early on in my research it became clear to me that there is an inherent relationship between students and the desks they spend thousands of hours sitting in. While generations of students faced issues unique to their own individual era, one aspect that remained constant throughout, is the universal and visceral connection between the student and the school desk.

I began collecting school desks throughout Arizona, which I then documented and employed as models that function as portraits. These portraits correspond with the eras in which the desks were built and used in classrooms. The visual information surrounding each desk represents the educational climate of that era. My use of  the labor-intensive process known as Lithography pays  homage to a craft that has been historically used for propaganda posters. Considering this historical significance further contextualizes the works objective.

Through the examination of historical records, archives and the legislation that has shaped the landscape of Arizona’s public school system, it has become evident that many of Arizona’s school children are being left behind their peers. As a result of polarizing perspectives and conviction, historically, Arizona policy makers have hindered the necessary progress to provide an educational environment fit for the entire student body. The installation titled “Discarded” materializes from the poetic notion that in absence of a collective consensus amongst policy makers, as well as Arizona citizens, countless students will continue to be discarded.