Occupying Space Temporarily (shack): Pete and I gathered scraps of material from late night east Oakland streets and built a 14' x 14' shack. We squatted the land, stole the electricity and lived in and around the shack for the price of a box of screws. I eventually sold the shack for $500.

"In August 2004, California was one stop in a string of temporary homes that spanned years and countries. Without the roots of family or hometown, I moved freely. Like a plastic bag blowing along an open road, I was urban tumbleweed. From Prague to Berlin to NYC and beyond, I consistently kept myself in the air, just barely. Not until California did I touch ground again. One inspired day, I had an overwhelming desire to build a shack with my new lover, who was my old neighbor from many years before. For two weeks, we gathered scrap materials from late night east Oakland streets. Things dumped and tossed, we found pallets and planks, a garage door, metal roofing, but most notably, a white picket fence. The weekend of November 6th, corresponding with the "temporary space" group show at the Dutchboy paint factory, on squatted land, with stolen electricity, all for the cost of a box of screws, we erected the shack. Ironically, this same weekend I became pregnant and nine months later while Katrina tore houses down, Lucky Anderson was born. The shack was originally intended as a monument to nomadic life, but a poignant twist proved it to stand for life, itself. Now I stand grounded, by a seed that was planted when I stopped moving long enough to fall in love, and build a house from trash." -Spy Emerson, May 2006

2004, series of 7, polaroid photos, 4.25x3.5