What's your Philadelphia story? Artists seek objects showing life in the city

On a Tuesday in April, Michael Ford, 30, of South Philadelphia, approached two artists stationed at a folding table in one of City Hall's vaulted passageways.

From the pocket of his cargo shorts, he pulled out a mosaic tile he'd made from shattered compact discs, part of a series he's calling "CDecopage." ("It's the perfect medium," he said - or, at least, it's an affordable one as CDs slide into obsolescence.) He said the piece is a memoir in 16 square inches, telling how he quit a job in health care to be an actor and artist. "I just wanted to do what I love: act and create," he said.

His work, and his story, will be part of the city's permanent public art collection, by way of My Philadelphia Story, by Matthew Alden Price and Won Kyoung Lee.

The artwork - a 20-foot-long shadow box packed with found and fabricated objects, each a pocket-size artifact of life in this city - is destined for Philadelphia International Airport's Terminal F.

To fill it, though, Price, 36, and Lee, 38, have a long way to go. They aim to collect 780 objects, and accompanying stories, by June 10; so far, they have fewer than 200.

So, Price and Lee have been hitting the streets, senior centers, school classrooms, festivals, and civic association meetings.

It's not an easy way to make artwork.

But Price said that when he and Lee made their proposal, they were determined to create something that would deeply engage weary, stranded travelers.

"We used to fly back and forth to Korea every six to eight weeks. We each used to travel 100,000 miles a year. We were always stuck in airports," he said. (Their record: 40 hours, at O'Hare.) "So, we wanted to create something that connects the citizens here to the travelers, and would give the travelers something to do."

Lee and Price, who are married and live in Northern Liberties, both make artwork with everyday objects, his dealing with language and hers with connections. So, for a public art piece, it made sense to them to recruit residents to provide the objects, along with their stories.

"It's a portrait of Philadelphia at a specific moment in time," said Jacque Liu, the city's Percent for Art project manager.

At first, they worried they'd get dozens of business cards - they won't accept marketing materials - and organic objects. (One 4-year-old asked to submit a Christmas cookie. They had to decline on the grounds it would not be archivally stable.)

Then the submissions started arriving. A man named Tony Chunn sent a red string laced through seven keys, one from each place he'd lived. "After 65 years of collecting," he wrote, "your project has made me realize how happy I am to be home."

Other items showed up in the mail, and in a drop box outside Price's studio: lockets and dice, origami and tools, pens and toys, and spools of thread.

"We've had generic objects that told really great stories, objects that are handmade, and things that have been collected over many years," Price said. "It was the most humbling experience to have people share these stories and these amazing objects."

Jennifer Mundy sent in her grandfather's broken wristwatch, which she'd found in his nightstand after his death.

Neil Benson submitted a collage of secondhand materials, representing his Dumpster Divers group of found-object artists.

John Gambescia, who works at the Philadelphia Law Department, unhooked from his key chain a SEPTA token holder that, he wrote, "represents over 25+ years of strap-hanging." He has faith that the SEPTA Key system will, sooner or later, make tokens a memory.

Joseph Kane of South Philadelphia offered a pair of pliers sized perfectly to grip a quarter, dating to when his parents' television was coin-operated. Watching the TV cost 25 cents for 25 minutes, until his mother, who needed the quarters to put dinner on the table, took a hammer to it.

"Every day is like opening treasure, like Christmas gifts coming in," Lee said. "It's really exciting."

The artists have found champions in people like Marie Elcin, an art teacher who assigned her fifth-grade students to work with their families to contribute an object. At the South Philadelphia Older Adult Center last week, program coordinator Matt Comey, 41, set up a table for Lee and Price and went off to gin up business. "I'm offering free lunch tickets to come and see you," he told them.

Lee and Price will be at City Hall from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays through June 7. (For instructions on how to submit, go to myphiladelphiastory.com.)

"Anything you want people to remember about you, your work, your family, you can submit it here," Price tells visitors.

That's where they met Ford, who came back a week later in a Phillies hat and Jim Beam T-shirt to deliver his contribution. "The opportunity to participate in something like this that embodies Philadelphia's artistic spirit is very appealing to me," he said.

Later, Alan Keiser, who works in insurance in Center City, stopped to talk shop with Price, who also runs a small-batch design-build business called Jonathan Alden.

"This speaks to me, because I'm also a woodworker," Keiser said.

He wanted to know more about the display case, which Price has been building for months. He ordered a walnut log from Plumsteadville in January 2015 and had it milled and dried over eight months. He's carving out 780 cubbies, each a four-inch square inscribed with a reference number. Visitors will be able to use those numbers to learn the stories behind the objects.

But before that can happen, there are a lot of empty cubbies left to fill.

The artists aim to attract participants from every corner of the city and every demographic - plus, maybe, a few local celebrities. Given that it's a city project, they're hoping at least for a contribution from Mayor Kenney.

"We're trying to get a reflection of what Philadelphia is," Lee said.

smelamed@phillynews.com
215-854-5053