object narratives
I have long been fascinated by objects and the stories that they hold. This is especially true of ordinary household objects, or unexpected narratives about objects that are, perhaps, hidden or not immediately apparent.
I came to possess, about a year ago, a small booklet of essays and artist’s creative responses to objects in the Foundling Museum in London, UK. The museum has a collection of valuable treasures that aim to tell the story of the Foundling Hospital and the children who lived there. The introduction, in the booklet, explains…
For many visitors it is the smallest objects, the tokens, which leave the greatest impression. During the early years of the Foundling Hopsitals admissions, mothers would leave a token with their babies as a means of identification shouls, they ever return to claim their child. Tokens range from coins, medals, jewellery, needlework and poems to a humble nut. Everyday objects were often personalised through drawings, engravings, stitches, inscriptions, holes or simple marks to be sure they could be easily identified.
I have always enjoyed artworks that have a story, a narrative behind them - a conceptual grounding that creates room for further exploration from the viewer. I think, in part, it is my desire to learn more, to learn something new from my looking. Just looking, itself, is often not enough.
Sometimes I have found the connection to an object or an artwork lacking initially, by just exploring it visually, but then that connection has come forth once I have discovered the story, the narrative, the concept behind it.
And so it was with some of the artworks on display in the wonderfully fascinating current exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre - The Stuff of Life: The Life of Stuff. Urging the visitor “to consider the global challenges of pollution, environmental destruction, and climate change”, the exhibition is not comfortable viewing. But then, it isn’t meant to be. It feels dirty yet also beautiful at the same time. Powerful yet also mundane. A series of elegantly put-together statements about the challenges our planet faces, alongside commentaries on individual places, people - and the overarching questions and messages visitors are confronted with: to check ourselves and our role in all of this.
El Anatsui “Freedom” Reclaimed bottle tops and copper wire (2021)
