Queens, NY – Materials for the Arts (MFTA) presents “The Accidental Archive,” a solo exhibition featuring recent work by MFTA Artist-in-Residence sTo Len. As MFTA’s resident artist, Len has had unlimited access to MFTA’s warehouse of donated supplies, where he’s collected and remixed outdated media and transformed the MFTA Gallery into a relic of times past: a space reminiscent of a video store replete with archival materials that detail both the personal and commercial marginalia of our lives. Celebrating the stories embedded within objects, his works unlock the ability of media to transport viewers through time, much like watching a film from childhood or the physicality of holding a landline telephone triggering a forgotten memory. “The Accidental Archive” activates lost media, recontextualizing our own intertwined stories in the process.

“In the ten years of my tenure at Materials for the Arts, I have not seen an artist activate the audio and video section of our warehouse in the way that sTo Len has,” shared MFTA Executive Director Tara Sansone. “Every resident artist that walks through our doors range widely in creative practice and specialty, but what unifies them is an appreciation for materiality and commitment to sustainability. Some artists paint; others sew; sTo Len transforms audio/video materials, bridging the gap between the past and the present.”

“When I first came to Materials for the Arts, I thought, ‘I'll let fate guide the materials to me,’” shared MFTA Artist-in-Residence sTo Len. “I think there's something interesting about this accidental archive at MFTA and I think that it's been amazing to see how it’s all being repurposed and how I can repurpose the stories that are in these objects as well.”

As a part of their residency, MFTA Artists-in-Residence have access to MFTA’s 35,000-square-foot warehouse of materials to choose from, as well as an entire studio space to develop their work. For MFTA Artist-in-Residence sTo Len, the physical media that has come through the warehouse during his residency has taken center stage. Taking the media he’s found and collaging it all together, Len splices home videos of vacations and weddings with Hollywood films, while prints are made from undeveloped rolls of used film found in donated cameras. But this isn’t his first exposure to archiving and digitizing media. As the 2021-23 Public-Artist-in-Residence (PAIR) for the Department of Sanitation through the Department of Cultural Affairs’ #PAIRnyc program, Len dedicated his residency to creating the Office of In Visibility (OOIV), a project that bore witness to the unseen labor of DSNY and its extensive role in New Yorkers’ lives. What started through dusting off archived boxes and uncovering old films and prints, OOIV ultimately allowed Len to “collaborate with the history of the [sanitation] department,” as he puts it.