The artist’s process begins with collecting sets of objects to be treated as archives, particularly ones that are subject to physical re-evaluations. Sometimes these objects are taken from personal collections, others are developed from happenstance. Salane uses the concept of ‘collection’ loosely and questions how the accumulation has amassed.

A new series of frames titled Repeating the Encounter each contain cut-out portions of autographed CD covers the artist acquired on eBay. The original owner, Nelson, had an extensive CD collection of Latin American recording artists who had visited and performed on the island of Puerto Rico, where he grew up. The musical ephemera marks a number of encounters between the hobbyist collector and the 90s salsa pop stars with whom he came into contact.

The artist was drawn to the reappearance of Nelson’s name handwritten onto each album cover, with intimate dedications from each singer. The framed art-works are arrangements of laser-cut croppings of the full album covers and the singer’s signature is made the focus. Nelson’s presence is documented in the exchange and on the objects themselves. The autograph, as something left over, becomes a point of reference for the time and place of the encounter and is evidence of the CD’s circulation. This series seeks to reboot the aftermath of an experience and re-examine how value and memory are negotiated.