I work with free association of shapes. There is no theory or principle guiding the way these images are constructed. It is instinctive. Maybe a little scenery emerges from the setup. And of course, each object has an origin, but when arranged, they become another thing.

These pictures work on a small scale, almost as if they are cataloguing things. It is about the object and the resulting picture. I also like taking pictures of buildings and landscapes, and some landscapes or some buildings are very appealing. They have a strong pull that makes you want to take a picture—and everyone does that. Some things have immediate appeal to become an image. I don’t necessarily seek them out, but sometimes things fall into my hands as gifts or objects I find, and I used to incorporate found objects in my sculptures, much more than I do now.

At the show I opened at Crèvecœur in Paris, someone told me that my sculptures almost looked functional, which they are not, but they could be, for a different body that is not human. A lot of the objects in these photos are old things which used to serve a purpose that is lost to us, like specific tools, or things that were made with different materials than mass-produced objects today. In one of the photos, there is a piece that looks like an ogre’s face, next to it there is something that looks like a tree, and with the crescent moon on the other side, it appears like a landscape. But the tree is actually an old bakelite rattle for babies, in the shape of a tortoise shell.

I don’t know if collecting to me is about nostalgia or about preserving. Sometimes I’ll find something that someone is throwing out, and I have a hard time not picking it up, because I feel bad for the object, as if it was alive.

When I arrange at least three objects, it affects the meaning. It becomes like a stage design, a scene, but there is not necessarily a narrative. Instead of actors, there are these elements, and the story hasn’t started yet. It is like the setup of a joke, but there is no punchline.

One thing I think is essential to sculpture is the relationship of parts to a whole, and the balance between those parts. A successful sculpture is one that has a certain type of order and internal logic that feels right when you see it. And I have this almost mystical belief that when things are arranged a certain way, they can’t be set up otherwise. Maybe that is how things gain power or value.