Plastic Bag at Stanford, 2005
The Quad at Stanford University is bordered by nearly endless rows of arches. It is an orderly and formal place.

The visual focus of this setting is the Stanford Memorial Church whose facade is decorated with a striking mosaic mural of Christ and his diciples. The modern university is a secular place and when people stop to consider the mural they understand it to reflect the religious impulses of the Stanford family, and yet, for modern sensibilities, it seems misplaced. But it is an artifact too well done to undo.

Into this a ghostly translucent plastic bag blows through and stops at the entrance to the church. A breeze holds open the bag and suggests contents no longer there. A photographer stoops to photograph this fragile intrustion. It will be gathered up and discarded.