Since 2003, artist Christopher Shores has been walking the dirty streets of New York City, picking up all sorts of detritus, including rusty nails, razorblades, spark plugs, shattered auto glass, even used condoms and parts of discarded electronic equipment. 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 addition, each piece contains a color photograph of the piece of trash on the street before he picked it up. In his travels, Shores has become both Baudelaire’s flaneur — an aimless city wanderer looking for encounters — 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, thesepieces of garbage are records of time and place, and invite us to look at them in a new way.