The participatory workshops took place at mima in May and June, and were designed as a way to introduce us and our overall working themes and practice to a selection of local residents.
Each day included a short practical project, whereby each person had an opportunity to cast a small item in pewter using the technique of cuttlefish casting. At the end of each three-hour session each person had an object to take home that they had made themselves, plus any notes and sketches produced along the way.
The workshops explored the relationship between objects and recollection, by working with an object from memory. Objects become treasured when they take on significance beyond that of their material form or function. Some objects help shape a sense of who we are and remind us of our relationships to others. Another way in which objects become more than just ‘stuff’, is through their capacity to trigger specific memories. Personal possessions and memories are inextricably linked, to the point that we might feel we will lose certain memories if we don’t have a particular object to trigger them.
But what if these important objects are not ours or within our possession? What happens if you lose something treasured? What about if you never owned it, but you have a strong sense of personal attachment to it?
We asked participants to draw on recollections – however vague – to create a new object. This was not about making an exact copy or a replica, but a way to investigate how objects can trigger memories, and vice versa. We asked that they describe a piece of jewellery, or a small significant object, from memory. It could be something real or imagined, something they used to own but have lost or given away, something currently owned but not present, or something that belongs to someone else.
We asked them to describe its form and what it means to them using words and sketches. There was no pressure to be accurate, or even particularly realistic: just to write down everything they could remember about it: its size, shape and material, what places or people were associated with it, where it is now and why it is special.
We then used the notes and drawings to carve a form into the surface of a cuttlefish bone for casting, and made new objects out of these memories.
Cheung & Potter 2010
