In "gone" the work is arranged in groupings of objects, selected and positioned to comment on romance, power, and gender roles. Most of the groupings contain objects that are remnants of the past so they resonate with memories and questions about the passage of time.

As a collector, I am very interested in the lifespan and the survival probabilities, of certain objects. I begin by searching and sorting particular objects from the landscape of ordinary life, separating them from the visual field of daily experience. I search for potent objects that project meaning. As I organize the objects in the studio both visual and emotional themes emerge. I imagine the narrative that the objects convey and combine the potent objects to reinforce the idea. I like thinking about the status and meaning of each object in the present. I ponder what that status and meaning might have been in its past. The self-conscious collection of memorabilia becomes a theme in the installation.

The objects in the installation and the juxtaposition of the groupings resonate with loving and sometimes painful nostalgia. The pieces can be pointedly critical of, or poke gentle fun at, materialism and the obsessive nature of collecting. The vignette of possible narratives makes each part of the installation perform like a still from a film. The groupings suggest "before and after" but also carry ambiguities. The viewer is asked to create the possible characters the objects suggest. The story-telling power of the objects and the arrangement in the narrative groupings carries the text and sub-text of the installation.

—Odile Dix