Brian’s Estate Sale is a fictional, character-driven installation by Lauren Cohen presented at the 2023 SPRING/BREAK Art Show. The project centers on “Brian,” an invented figure whose life is reconstructed through an estate sale composed of over 100 ceramic household objects.

Installed as a rummage-style environment, the work invited visitors to encounter Brian indirectly through his possessions.

 

The ceramics functioned as narrative proxies, mapping desire, loneliness, routine, and longing through domestic objects, collections, and humorous detail. Items included tableware, games, food-related forms, sentimental keepsakes, and figurative vessels, each contributing to a fragmented portrait assembled through accumulation rather than biography.

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By withholding clarity about whether Brian was alive or deceased, Cohen positioned the estate sale as an ambiguous site of exchange, prompting questions about value, attachment, and what remains of a person through what they leave behind. The project uses humor and material excess to examine intimacy, projection, and the emotional residue embedded in everyday objects.

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