Leisurely Time

Particularly interesting is locating what Ariel calls the "intimate ways freeways normalize specific daily activity." While not factoring prominently in any spectacular form, the can of "Steel Reserve" appears to be suspended in time over the constant motion below. The can may initially be seen as a discarded piece of trash, revealing an environmental toxicity (trash) juxtaposed against another environmental toxicity (pollution, land expropriation). But, the can may also reveal something less spectacular and more intimate. It may be an artifact of suspended time; of leisurely time perhaps. While not diminishing it as a piece of trash and as such its environmental consequences, the can may also narrate an affect where the can, the overpass, and the freeway beneath serve as a stolen moment in time for a passerby. Like Ariel, who took the photograph while walking his dog, a passerby may have taken a stroll to enjoy a moment suspended above the 210 freeway. The humming sounds of the cars moving below may drown out many demands of daily life. The malt liquor could possibly be seen then as a stolen moment in an otherwise fleeting temporality. This moment however, is confronted by the concrete structures, land expropriation, and pollution resulting from the freeway. The moment of leisure obscures the toxicity of the location. The passerby while decompressing from the everyday must do so at the expense of an environmental hazard.