Ephemera, 1990 - 2022

The Ephemera series contains personal effects from Barbara Rosenthal’s global travels and life in New York City. In her artistic practice, Rosenthal regularly engages in a process of self-exploitation, rendering the composite elements of her life into materials for her various projects. As such, Rosenthal developed a habit of holding onto even the more ephemeral objects she came into contact with, such as envelopes or wrappers. For Rosenthal, this is distinctly not a process of collection, but of accumulation. She did not go out of her way to obtain any of the objects in this series, but rather encountered them in the process of moving through the world. The objects in this series embody the range of materials that Rosenthal found herself encountering.

The series is divided into two subseries: NYC and Travels. The boxes comprising the former were compiled over the course of decades in her Manhattan home. The latter includes materials accumulated during travels, both in the United States and internationally. Domestic locations are grouped by city: Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Pittsburg, San Juan, and Shoemakersville. International locations are grouped by country: Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Guatemala, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Russia, and the United Kingdom. In the case of the international objects, many had to be intentionally mailed back to Rosenthal’s New York home.

“Mixed materials” designates that a folder contains objects ranging from receipts to playbills to napkins. When folders are labeled with specific descriptions, as is the case with the Jane Laundromat receipts and Post-It Notes in the NYC subseries, they reflect the organizing designations given by Rosenthal.