Salane’s installations uncover the ways in which collections symbolize the large but obscure organizations and systems of regulation that assemble them. Her particular interest is in objects rendered obsolete or deemed useless, like dummy coins used in place of bus tokens or the extension codes for a department store which closed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Frequently acquiring her objects from auction style platforms, Salane’s collections include a record of the books housed in the Port Authority Library which was closed in 1995 and photographs and ephemera from the World Trade Center restaurant Windows on the World which was destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attacks. In many ways Salane’s practice can be seen as a personal meditation on New York City itself, preserving its particular histories and locations as well as exposing its inner workings.

In her practice, the artist also works to connect and weave together distant or even opposing methodologies and perspectives. In the works Panorama 94 (2019) and 60 Detected Rings (1991 – 2021), Salane had the rings evaluated by genetic scientists, spiritual readers, pawn shop owners, metal detectorists, and jewelers, presenting the varied and potentially conflicting findings as text descriptions alongside each ring. The ways in which information and objects are evaluated and disseminated is central to the artist’s work, juxtaposing their perceived biological, sentimental, and monetary worth against one another.