For the past several years, Christopher Shores has been walking the streets of New York City, picking up all sorts of detritus, including rusty nails, razorblades, spark plugs, discarded electronic equipment and shattered auto glass. All of these objects have now found permanent homes inside individual bars of clear, pure glycerin soap that the artist calls “street soaps.” Each unique art piece gives a sense of place, as each box includes information indicating the exact time and location where each object was found. In his travels, Shores has become both an aimless city wanderer and a modern urban archaeologist, uncovering clues about how we live by examining the things we leave behind. In a small way, he also helps to clean the streets of the city, giving a newfound value to the trash he collects. The soaps’ functionality is limited, however. Though they can make your hands clean, they are ultimately dirty, and even dangerous to use. Like bugs frozen in amber, these pieces of garbage are records of time and place, and invite us to look at them in a new way.