The floor is never finished
The wood-tile floor is never finished. I find a new square to paint a warmer shade, another to gloss over, and the next, I sand down. I might push it up the wall at some point, coat the ceiling, or have it roll out onto the street.
“Roll out onto the street,” I say aloud, and find myself looking toward the door.
Was that a message for me to walk outside? Is something out there waiting for me to see it? If I don’t go now, will I miss it? A sign, a would-be-lover, a retro chair left by the bin.
And if I feel prompted to exit the room because I’ve written that the floor could, does this mean that I relate to the floor? I think I thought I was the wall, at least before I wondered if [name redacted] was.
I’m not ashamed of empathizing with objects, and I’m not discomforted by the amount of (or lack of) imagination required to do so—but why do I have to identify with all of them? If only I could choose, the floor or the wall.
I would hate to, though. I would hate the floor, the wall, after a month or a week, and rush out through the door (could I be the hinge?) to relate to another.
What a waste of time that would be.
Cue Patsy Cline’s ‘Walkin’ After Midnight.’
during July 2025, amid a record-breaking heat wave, Love-McCorkle conceptualized and constructed an installation composed of three sets at her former studio, before moving out, called Floret's Scene. Besides the frames sat upon the shelves in the On Shelves collection, all of the works were made during the month of July, using supplies that were either purchased in 2024 for a personal interior design project that did not reach completion, spare or leftover supplies provided by the art spaces in which she has worked, or repurposed items that she found set out on the sidewalk. The show opened on July 25th and lasted until August 5th, and the opening hours were from 14h to 18h. Thematically, the three-part installation pondered on domesticity and thought of itself, in moments, as an impassioned letter addressed to romanticism.
Set 1: a small flower
Set 11: broccoli head
over our heads
2025
cushioning, wadding,
painted cardboard rolls, and screws
expandable
Behind the Curtains
2025
two hollow cement blocks and two concrete warning pavers sat upon two chairs,
cushioning, painted canvas, wadding, and steel wool
85 x 43 x 42 cm each
Set 111: floor it
From bottom up:
silver lining, rubber mats, concrete paver, hollow cement block, lightbulb
aluminum sheets, aluminum chair frame, painted cushioning, wire, bolts, nuts, failed acrylic paintings
The excerpt of the floor is never finished, a work of creative non-fiction by Love-Mccorkle, was originally published within the invitation to the exhibition floret’s scene, distributed on July 21, 2025.