These images are from the series: Make Them Love You (2004). When this series was initially conceived, the depictions of microphones served as metaphors for the desire to be loved and accepted.

Microphones can be used as powerful and seductive instruments for both politics and entertainment. By eliminating the speakers, performers and audience, these microphones are left to inhabit their own quiet and pristine space. As a result, they appear to interact with themselves. Yet a human presence still remains. As objects, they resemble characters: they stand, bow down, hover, or search longingly for a voice.

-Paolo Arao

Images courtesy the artist and Jeff Bailey Gallery