Fleeting Moments Installation
2023
An unplanned studio installation
This took place during a month long period of unexpected and sudden home-trailer displacement caused by a flea infestation from an adopted street cat in the area of Boyle Heights, in East Los Angeles.
Documenting a moment-in-time of unexpected disruption and change, partially represented by these objects which, like myself, had to be relocated temporarily or permanently.
I removed these items along with all of my belongings from my trailer (approx 100sq. ft.) in order to completely sanitize and renovate due to this infestation. I renovated myself while I stayed temporarily in a smaller trailer nearby (approx 65 sq. ft.)
Elements of chance, randomness, luck (and thus its antithesis: ‘bad luck’); working with and embracing unexpected variables in life, art, plans, housing (etc.)
Item 1: 1970s trailer-home propane oven; original.
Item 2: DIY Flea Trap plate (soap and water mixture heated with light source from above).
Item 3: Plastic garbage bag full of clothes to be sanitized and methodically quarantined along with the rest to prevent future flea cycles.
Item 4: A butterfly wing I had previously found on the ground and attempted to preserve in a plastic sandwich bag.
Fleeting Moments: Notes/Reflections: Unedited Transcription From Self Audio Recording By Alexander Kaye:
Text represented in brackets [example] was automatically generated by the transcription software, sometimes in error by mistakenly creating unsaid words, and other times in attempts to decipher background noise, sometimes accurately!
"[BLANK_AUDIO]" represents moments of silence in my speech in my attempt to find the words or context with which I want to continue.
"(fragment; restart)" represents a fragmented sentence and then starting that thought over from its beginning.
This installation happened in the summer of 2023. While living in East Los Angeles (fragment; restart) while living in a small trailer in East Los Angeles, less than a mile from my art studio. I took in a small stray cat who came up to my trailer adamantly asking for food and water. I took him in without realizing just how dire the consequences of having an animal with fleas in your home can be. Before I realized what was happening, my place was infested with fleas and it was far too late for any easy solutions. I spent weeks trying to figure out how to get rid of them until eventually having to move completely out of my trailer into an adjacent trailer while I entirely emptied out and sanitized and figured out the flee situation.
It took me almost an entire month of work to move back into my trailer because I ended up having to renovate the entire kitchen and other areas that needed to be fixed while I was temporarily moved out. The objects in this installation were taken out of my trailer during that process. The oven was the original oven in this trailer, probably from the 70s. I found the butterfly wing as I was removing or throwing away all of my possessions. I then put in a ziplock bag to protect it. The bag of clothes was one of many as the advice online was to bag up all of your clothes to systematically wash and clean and sanitize them to ensure no fleas would live past this stage of cleaning. The plate of water and soap with the lamp over it was a DIY flea trap that I found instructions for online, you put water and soap into the plate and the light above it.. the heat from the light attracts the fleas and the surface tension of the water is broken by the soap which inevitably kills the fleas that get trapped in it.
This installation to me, this series of objects, felt important within the context of my acceptance of change in life, unexpected change, inevitable, sometimes brutal change. And I wanted to capture a part of that moment in some way to remind myself that change is inevitable. It really just depends on how we react to change that ultimately matters in our lives.






Fleeting Moments
2023
An unplanned studio installation.
This took place during a month long period of unexpected and sudden home-trailer displacement caused by a flea infestation from an adopted street cat in the area of Boyle Heights, in East Los Angeles.
Documenting a moment-in-time of unexpected disruption and change, partially represented by these objects which, like myself, had to be relocated temporarily or permanently.
I removed these items along with all of my belongings from my trailer (approx 100sq. ft.) in order to completely sanitize and renovate due to this infestation. I renovated myself while I stayed temporarily in a smaller trailer nearby (approx 65 sq. ft.)
Elements of chance, randomness, luck (and thus its antithesis: ‘bad luck’); working with and embracing unexpected variables in life, art, plans, housing (etc.)
Item 1: 1970s trailer-home propane oven; original.
Item 2: DIY Flea Trap plate (soap and water mixture heated with light source from above).
Item 3: Plastic garbage bag full of clothes to be sanitized and methodically quarantined along with the rest to prevent future flea cycles.
Item 4: A butterfly wing I had previously found on the ground and attempted to preserve in a plastic sandwich bag.
Fleeting Moments: Notes/Reflections: Unedited Transcription From Self Audio Recording By Alexander Kaye:
Text represented in brackets [example] was automatically generated by the transcription software, sometimes in error by mistakenly creating unsaid words, and other times in attempts to decipher background noise, sometimes accurately!
"[BLANK_AUDIO]" represents moments of silence in my speech in my attempt to find the words or context with which I want to continue.
"(fragment; restart)" represents a fragmented sentence and then starting that thought over from its beginning.
This installation happened in the summer of 2023. While living in East Los Angeles (fragment; restart) while living in a small trailer in East Los Angeles, less than a mile from my art studio. I took in a small stray cat who came up to my trailer adamantly asking for food and water. I took him in without realizing just how dire the consequences of having an animal with fleas in your home can be. Before I realized what was happening, my place was infested with fleas and it was far too late for any easy solutions. I spent weeks trying to figure out how to get rid of them until eventually having to move completely out of my trailer into an adjacent trailer while I entirely emptied out and sanitized and figured out the flee situation.
It took me almost an entire month of work to move back into my trailer because I ended up having to renovate the entire kitchen and other areas that needed to be fixed while I was temporarily moved out. The objects in this installation were taken out of my trailer during that process. The oven was the original oven in this trailer, probably from the 70s. I found the butterfly wing as I was removing or throwing away all of my possessions. I then put in a ziplock bag to protect it. The bag of clothes was one of many as the advice online was to bag up all of your clothes to systematically wash and clean and sanitize them to ensure no fleas would live past this stage of cleaning. The plate of water and soap with the lamp over it was a DIY flea trap that I found instructions for online, you put water and soap into the plate and the light above it.. the heat from the light attracts the fleas and the surface tension of the water is broken by the soap which inevitably kills the fleas that get trapped in it.
This installation to me, this series of objects, felt important within the context of my acceptance of change in life, unexpected change, inevitable, sometimes brutal change. And I wanted to capture a part of that moment in some way to remind myself that change is inevitable. It really just depends on how we react to change that ultimately matters in our lives.