C R U S H E D  B L U E S T O N E (2013)
Vigaro 0.5 cu. ft. Bagged All-Purpose Decorative Stone, purchased from Home Depot for $4.98
Stone was retired to the earth after being displayed.

As a society, we have become blind to the products we purchase. The notion of “raw material” has become strikingly removed from the reality of the “finished product”. Commodification overwhelms current society; the accepted belief that products seemingly appear on shelves for our purchase with no paid attention to origin is dire. I chose to showcase the “final product” Crushed Bluestone as the regionally quintessential candidate from The Home Depot as an installed then retired “raw material” to repurpose it to its original form. It is of utmost importance that we question the products we purchase. This is a call to an end to blind consumption and a beginning towards the deconstruction of The Spectacle through self researching methodologies as well as the general questioning of the everyday.

Crushed Bluestone has been mined for the past 200 years in the South-Central of New York State, being shipped across the United States and Canada as it is exclusive to our region. Bluestone was deposited here during the Devonian Period 345-370 million years ago, as a part of the Catskill Delta which placed mineral grains and rocky deposits into an ancient sea that covered the majority of present-day New York. Bluestone is currently mined in quarries and can be found 3-20 feet underground with an environmental rate of waste to actual product of around 10:1. The mineral composition makes Bluestone very durable, resistant to wear, temperature flux, and pressure. These natural aspects of Bluestone have been transformed into highly coveted human desires of decoration, landscaping, and architectural materials.

"The by-products in question are power and leisure - the power to decide and the leisure to consume which are the alpha and the omega of a process that is never questioned."
- Guy Debord, Unity and Division within appearances, 60, The Society of the Spectacle