Michael Eastman and Robert Mazrim’s collaborative exhibition Excavating The Emptied Globe, centers on the derelict Globe Drug Warehouse in Downtown St Louis. Documenting the dilapidated building like archeologists, Eastman and Mazrim capture the afterlife of the dust encrusted paperback books, palettes, clothing, food and office supplies abandoned by the building’s final occupant. The character of the work on display evokes a surprising pathos for these modern fossils. Another facet of this afterlife quickly comes into focus under the camera’s gaze: The signage for exits and entrances, tool rooms and discount aisles have been graphitized. An eerie post apocalyptic narrative of messages stemming from the instructions and activities of unknown employees is reinterpreted and commented upon through the years by equally anonymous visitors to the ghost world of the abandoned warehouse. These residual layers of decay and accretion, at times simultaneously peeling back and obscuring meaning, reveal the new dawn of a contemporary society already fading into the past tense.

Michael Eastman’s work can be viewed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. His photographs have also been featured in the New York Times, Life Magazine and on multiple Time Magazine covers.

Robert Mazrim has practiced as a professional painter/archeologist for 25 years. He studied art and anthropology at the Art Institute of Chicago and has written several books on the archeology and artifacts of the historical Midwest.