PPOTW
2009-ongoing
A few years ago, my friend Lyle and I were commuting to work together in her car when we happened to both notice a construction truck ahead of us, towing a portable toilet. At that very moment, as if by magic, the porta-potty uncoupled itself from the truck at a split in the road: the truck slowly went one way, the porta-potty, another. Ever since then, I’ve looked at portable toilets as enchanted signifiers, and have documented them accordingly.
Over the years, I’ve come across them in some very lovely places around the world. There’s something wondrous about a portable crapper in the midst of an otherwise entrancing environment that speaks to me. It conflates the sublime and the scatological, public space and private biological function, and suggests transformation (construction sites) and celebration (festivals, concerts).
