Publications

Form of Indeterminate Purpose by W. Vandoren Wheeler May 3 Social worker dropped it off: only thing left in Dad’s lastest apartment. She said she found it set in the exact center of the living room. Typical Dad, no note. Oblique little trash obelisk. May 7 No contact from Dad for days—no letter, no nothing. No trace, online or elsewhere. He is gone. Gone gone. May 18 I must assume Dad left this worthless trinket for me, but it’s not anything I remember. Started searching through old photographs, scanning backgrounds of snapshots and polaroids. Borrowed a slide projector to cycle through the family shoebox. Late into the night, the carousel’s shu-kah, shu-kah. Stared past us to scan countertops, bookshelves, terra cotta pots-their black holes of soil from which off-green plants spring…. Found nothing. June 11 Sent the mystery token off to a lab. They ran the basics, came back with the obvious: 3.729 ounces, ceramics of unknown origin, 13 gauge steel wire for internal structural support, oxidized by Father Time. “Form of indeterminate purpose.” Wow, thanks. June 16 Not only do I not have any, today I realized I would stomp-squash any hope might sprout. What I do have is this clue. The form is the thing. I can hold it, this solid artifact. This key. I’m turning it into a totem, an unread message. June 22 Sent that stupid mute trash amulet to a better lab, somewhere upstate. Coughed up for the works. June 25 Carbon dating puts it at 1972. Good start, but waiting for results from all available separatory methods: selective precipitation, filtration, complexation, osmosis, Form of Indeterminate Purpose
Forms of Indeterminate Purpose by W. Vandoren Wheeler Posted February 17, 2024
Black and white photographs of flags on a wall. Rochelle Kulei Nielsen’s New Alphabet
Historical context for the new alphabet created by Rochelle Kulei Nielsen for her 2022 exhibition in the North View Gallery. Posted January 2, 2023
Charged Voids Essay
Essay for Avantika Bawa's exhibition at the North View Gallery in 2022. Posted September 29, 2022