Although mostly made of metal Maw was inspired by the idea of oceanic gyres as vortexes for plastic refuse and the bottomless appetite of global consumer culture.

Maw combines the salvaged cowling of a small airplane with thousands of used guitar strings. The strings were and continue to be salvaged from the workshop of local guitar maker Doug Thompson since 1996.

The slot machine was initially made of cast iron and over its hundred plus years has been reinvented countless times. Most often its reinvention was spurred by loopholes and language peculiarities of gambling laws that were also repeatedly changing in response to clever machine manufacturers.

The objects in these slot windows represent some of the most ingenious and often discarded inventions of the twentieth century. This piece is the ninth and final piece in the Refuse Culture: Archaeology of Consumption series of works. It represents the literal point of departure from this project toward the beginning of a new project that will focus on the optimism, naivety and hope of invention and discovery.