The Transitive Property of Equality Installation at Krowswork, 2015. Media collage on New York Times, quotations from poem The natural world, frozen by Anne Leslie Selcer, and objects on shelves. Quenza Collection.
This 26-part series represents the 12th phase of Rapoport’s Objects on My Dresser (1979-1983 & 2015), as well as the last of her New York Times projects. Combining collage and interactive installation elements, this piece was created during Rapoport’s 2015 artist residency at Krowswork - A Center for Video and Visionary Art in Oakland, CA.
Phrases from fellow resident Anne Lesley Selcer’s poem The natural world frozen (2014) are collaged onto pages from The New York Times and matched with one of the objects that were the subject of Rapoport’s most ambitious and longest-running conceptual computer artworks.
Viewers were asked to participate in the installation by selecting an object and matching it with a quote from Selcer’s poem and a page from The New York Times. They recorded their choice by placing a colored glass bead in a grid.
Completed in the final weeks of Rapoport’s life, and assembled according to her instructions, this meditation on artmaking embodies Rapoport’s generous humor, unflinching critical eye, and fascination with categorization and matching.
The Transitive Property of Equality, 2015. Media collage on New York Times, quotations from poem The natural world, frozen by Anne Leslie Selcer. Quenza Collection.
In 2021, art historians Terri Cohn and Alla Efimova hosted a video series exploring Objects On My Dresser.
In this first episode, which focuses on The Transitive Property of Equality, they interview poet and art writer Anne Lesley Selcer and Farley Gwazda, director of the Sonya Rapoport Legacy Trust.