Alt Text ...

Sum of All Parts

    an investigative photo documentary

Exclusive 24-page photo essay from our investigative journalist team in collaboration with award-winning photojournalist Johan Hallberg-Campbell. Location: Toronto, Canada Copyright Wondereur 2023.

MEET with artist Micah Lexier curated by international design guru Bruce Mau.

Lexier 1
Jhc mg 3932
“I NEVER COULD DRAW BUT I’VE LEARNED OVER TIME THAT I’M REALLY GOOD AT SEEING THINGS.”
Jhc mg 3627 2
“I can find something interesting in the garbage one day, cut it out, bring it home, put it in a box under a specific category with information on where and how I found it. It doesn’t seem foreign or strange at all to me.”
Jhc mg 4227
“TO ME, ANY OBJECT IS AN ARTWORK.”
Jhc mg 3280
“I’m sure there’s a big German word for it out there: this idea that every aspect of everything is somehow artfully done. It’s something I learned from my parents.”
Jhc mg 4308
“My parents designed their own home in Winnipeg and built it. When Frank Gehry first started making furniture, they bought a Frank Gehry piece. We had an early Noguchi lamp that was so uncharacteristic of Noguchi. All the furniture in our house was like Eames and Knoll.”
Jhc mg 4355
“EVERYTHING WAS DESIGNED. EVERYTHING WAS INTENTIONAL, UP TO THE CUTLERY AND CEREAL BOWLS.”
mg 3370
Jhc mg 4347
“I WAS ALWAYS ATTRACTED TO FOUND THINGS.”
Jhc mg 3197
“Actually, almost everything I do is done in collaboration with someone else.”
Jhc mg 3313
“THE FIRST THING I COLLECTED WAS FAULTY KEYS.”
Jhc mg 4757
“I was at the mall one day and I noticed that key-cutting kiosks made a lot of mistakes when cutting keys. I didn’t know that, I thought the keys always worked.”
Jhc mg 5313
“Coloured keys were all the rage at the time. I started to pick up the ‘faulty’ ones at the end of the day. I kept them in a turquoise tool chest I got as a reward for having perfect attendance at school.”
Jhc mg 5089
“Then I started to collect information, keeping records of things I did. At some point, when I was living in New York and things weren’t going well, I kept a list of all the rejection letters I received.”
Jhc mg 4965
“IT TURNED THINGS AROUND. I STARTED TO LOOK FORWARD TO THE NEXT REJECTION LETTER TO ADD IT TO THE LIST.”
Jhc mg 4849
“Now, I’m trying to collect things that move me, that touch me, and that break traditional categories of things I thought I wanted or liked.”
Jhc mg 4916
“I HAVE THIS MANTRA THAT’S CALLED ‘STOP COUNTING.’”
Jhc mg 4997 2
“I’ll still drive to cities just to spend a couple hours searching for some kind of gem. The goal is not to find something valuable. It just has to make sense on a gut level.”
Jhc mg 4800
“MY BIG PASSION RIGHT NOW IS USED BOOKS. A CERTAIN KIND OF USED BOOKS.”
Jhc mg 5119
“I have a beyond-belief, crazy collection of very inexpensive publications that are puzzle books, how-to books, magic books and games. It feeds my art practice. It actually fed a multi-year project in collaboration with artist Michael Dumontier that was published as a book in Switzerland.”
Jhc mg 4990
“REALLY, THERE IS NOT A THING I DO THAT IS SOLO.”
Jhc mg 4972
“People think collaboration is tough. It’s not. I’ve rarely, rarely had a negative experience. It’s kind of shocking.”
Jhc mg 5061
“It’s such a nice way of working – sharing the burden and sharing the responsibility.”
Jhc mg 4254
“I LIKE RECOGNIZING THINGS IN OTHER PEOPLE.”