Was I ever really more than ordinary?

Was I ever really more than ordinary? focuses on the question of what it is about ourselves that makes us exceptional, that helps us to stand out amongst the rest. Using the most basic of construction materials (1/4" plywood) five 5 gallon paint buckets have been recreated almost entirely to specs. Each paint bucket contains a speaker which resonates with inaudible whispers of thoughts, actions, events of a person's life. The buckets lay in a seemingly haphazard arrangement on a pressed particle pallet which has been highly lacquered and sprayed with construction orange underneath.


The work addresses a concern within our culture regarding personal identity, finding oneself and being ok with who we are in the collective we've chosen to embrace. The materials used and objects portrayed allude to mass production: casually tossed away and used objects, things that are left behind or stored away forgotten, but useful and precious in their own right, for their purpose is beneficial to us all. More often than not we tend to forget how significant our presence, and the presence of those around us, is. Subtly, Was I ever really more than ordinary?, invites the viewer to re-examine the obvious, the overlooked and see more in the world around them.

Ava Larkin

Was I ever really more than ordinary?

Plywood, pallet, paint, speakers, audio

46" x 40" x 40"

2007