Yifei Cai

Commodity Beyond Price — A Visible Database of Free Objects

This project gathers several hundred objects I collected for free during my time living in Providence—items left behind, picked up, or given without expectation. Each object is documented through its price, cost, weight, and a subjective value based on memory and relation. Installed as an open, accessible accumulation, visitors are invited to exchange objects using their own sense of equivalence. Each exchange generates a record, forming a visible and evolving database of how value is perceived and negotiated. The work explores how objects circulate beyond the commercial system, and how meaning persists through use, memory, and everyday encounters. More importantly, in this space we can break free from the commodity economy and embrace our inner caring.

Thesis Cover

A collage created using image of items from the artwork.

A Corner of the whole collection. During the exhibition, visitors may exchange these exhibits for any items they consider to be of equivalent value.

A collage created using image of items from the artwork, this collage is a simulation of the orange shelves at the exhibition site.