“Curious Curios”
{Found Items Installation}
We are all familiar with the tradition of leaving behind little trinkets and ‘valuable’ things to our family or friends … sometimes a piece of jewelry … usually an item that meant something to us or something we imbued meaning upon.
Every item we gather and keep tells a story. But when we are gone, we are not here to pass the story on. Will our descendants know the meaning we imbued? Why we kept that little piece of rock? What adventure we were on when we found the shells on the beach? Perhaps if we write a will or make a death journal, the precious things can be designated along with their story?
However, in addition to these ‘precious’ items, there are also another set of items associated with a person – not so much treasured things, but things that lived with them every day – the chapstick, the flashdrive, the poop bag roll, the set of keys, the ID cards - what will happen to those sorts of items when you die? Our furniture and knick knacks may end up at Goodwill, but not these things. So, are they just added to the trash by our loved one for future archeologists to ponder over? When the archeologists find them, they will likely not find them in our homestead, so they won’t be able to use them to date us, or to tell our story.
How much of our everyday story of how we lived our life will actually live on?
How many of the items in our junk drawer will be scattered to the wind?