Aphra Cheesman
“It is [the] liminal objects piled, at the borders of transit routes between subjects and ‘proper objects’… that we term stuff… objects that have enjoyed their moment of consumer allure but have now shed their commodity glamour – without yet being quite cast aside. They exist brazenly as neither one thing nor the other… but still bearing traces of a past… of the interactions between subject and object that formed them and wore them out….” (Boscagli 2014, p. 6)
I collect traces of the encounters that have occurred between people and things, gleaning objects and materials that are worn or decayed; signs of their past, and their interactions with people. I consider how the contact zones between people and ‘stuff’ are examples of a networked materiality – an intersection of social, political, environmental and economic forces – pointing to an interconnectedness and complexity of everyday life (Boscagli 2014).
Each piece in this series of jewellery and objects responds to what I find and notice. I assemble elements of familiar things to then create something that is less familiar and in doing so place the objects precariously between categories. Everyday ‘stuff’ continually alters through an ongoing exchange between humans and objects. Hence, the categories in which we locate these things are not fixed, disrupting the conventional ‘order of things’ and notions of fixed subject-object relations. (Boscagli 2014)
Jewellery provides a networked materiality in its ability to form connections between people, environments and things. This work will continue to shift, taking on traces of new interactions as it is worn and exchanged in everyday life.
Boscagli, M 2014, Stuff theory: everyday objects, radical materialism, Bloomsbury, New York.
Untitled, 2020
Video
2 Mins 11 Secs
Stuff, brooches and objects, 2020
Found electrical wire, found aluminium bottle, copper, mild steel, stainless steel, vitreous enamel, found coat hanger, found copper plumbing pipe, mattress foam, brass, epoxy clay, furniture paint, furniture wax
250mm x 350mm x 25mm
Stuff, neckpiece and brooches, 2020
Copper, mild steel, stainless steel, found copper plumbing pipe, brass, epoxy clay, furniture paint, furniture wax, silk thread
250mm x 150mm x 25mm
Installation view, 2020
Photograph
1500mm x 2000mm x 500mm
