The Souvenir Original Event
I accompanied the first few enthusiastic dinner guests in through the maze that is my childhood house. We left behind the darkness through a pair of wide open doors where a breeze greeted us, and stepped through the threshold into the deck. The idea of a sharing a meal with this particular friendship group was not out of the ordinary. However, what made it different was that I have asked every guest to wear a ring throughout the evening. Located on the deck – a small unassuming square wooden table, on it a mountain of round wire wax rings. I invited these first guests to choose their ring for the evening.
The aim of the objects and subsequent gathering was to explore the potential of an object to perform as a souvenir. Furthermore, how we then regard these objects charged with possibility of becoming something more, when these object are not representing a beloved person or predominate figure to the majority of the audience. Does the object retain the potentiality of performing as a souvenir? When speaking of a souvenir it is to and of the potentiality for a kept cherished object to act as a or reminder of a person, place or event. Which can only be created when the object leaves its origin, creating a distance from that which is to represent. The investigation included 1.) the desire of the object to become something more than inanimate, 2.) the acquisition of the object, 3.) intimacy over time, and 4.) distance from its place of origin.
I asked the guests to wear the wax ring for the duration of the evening. The objects material was chosen due to its inherent properties to accelerate the process of collection of dints, dents and evidence that told the story of the wearer’s experience. Allowing for their narrative to be imprinted on to the rings surface. It is the creation of lasting physical evidence of the wearer’s movement, actions and interactions. Once the evening had come to a close the wearers were removed from the rings.
The resulting collection of rings from the evening did not disappoint, no two rings were the same. Each is as individual as the wearer who belongs to them. Their character had been written all over the rings surface.
Those guests who push the boundaries are marked with large indents indicative of their confident movements. Others who are quiet and reserved were reflected in the evidence of slow careful gestures. It is only when the wearer was removed from the ring, and distance was created form its origin, was when the potentiality of the object to perform as a souvenir of the wearer could be realised.
The wax objects from the evening were then cast into sterling silver. A material that follows the goldsmithing traditions a universal ‘precious’ material, but was also chosen for its inherent properties allowing for the rings transformation to be solidified. The rings physical evolution had now been concretised.
Once separated from the wearers and cast the rings were placed inside a showcase, in a white walled gallery. The rings are boxed in, captured. An paradox is created. The rings are ‘protected’ by an acrylic shield from prying hands, the place for which this jewellery archetype, the ring, was originally created.
Reflecting back when I stood in front of the small table with the offering of wax rings. Even as the host of the evening and maker of the original objects I shared anticipation with the guests of the possibility of ‘creating’ something more of these inanimate objects that I stood before. I was taken by surprise at the heightened expectation I had of myself that I chose the ‘right’ ring. It was only by holding the ring, inspecting it in the palm of my hand, rotating the object to see it from all angles that I was able to decide.
Once the ring was worn it gained a certain level of immediate intimacy, it was only over the duration of the evening that the intimacy developed slowly evolving the ring into a cherished object. There was an unexpected feeling of loss when I removed myself from the ring. It was only with distance, from the object that potential of the souvenir begun to develop.
The rings on display are frozen in time, not only in material but also behind a barrier where its narrative with the wearer, their collaboration has been brought holt, it cannot continue.
My aim for this project was that the rings captured a moment of time and place, but also the personality of the wearer, built over the course of the evening. The ring now possesses the wearer, they are embedded into the object. While these rings hold the potential to be souvenir object of special people in my life, however, to the exhibition audience they represent seemingly everyday people. The dinner guests created the potentiality of these objects. But they were removed from the rings, stripping the objects of their immediate context.
Can the audience still make a connection to these objects without the context? By asking the audience to examine the marks made on the rings, could these objects allude to the type of people the wearers may be? It is only on static display that the potentiality of these objects can be determined in the eye of the beholder.
