The artist’s diverse practice encompasses everything from ramshackle lamps to giant painted sculptures of flowers. In 2nd Gen (2010–17), he drills down on a very niche group: Grateful Dead fanatics who recorded, hoarded, and traded live concert tapes. As Paul Soto tells me, the artist made it his mission to source and collect around 2,800 of these cassettes, compiling them into what he thinks of as an “archaeological hippy relic.” The goal, in short, is to take “economics of desire or ego” and “bring them into art context.” Rodriguez’s piece could, of course, double as a usable music archive for any Jerry Garcia groupie who still owns a tape player. But as a sculpture it also becomes something of an unnerving monument, all those cassette spines reminding us that we’ll be DEAD DEAD DEAD someday, too.