Project 2

For the ‘Appropriation and Recontextualization’ project (pictured below), I chose to use a set of heirloom dinnerware, gifted to me by my mother. With it, I explored the way that location affects the viewers (as well as my own) understanding of the item itself. I wanted to consider the way that environment and treatment of physical objects drastically alters, on an emotional level, our reactions to people and to the objects themselves.

I chose to use this particular set of china because of its emotional tie to myself and to my family, as opposed to a brand-new package from a store, or a used or borrowed set from Goodwill or a friend. The foreknowledge that the dinnerware is a personal gift from a family member drastically changes the viewers, as well as my own, interpretation of and response to the set of china as seen in different locations and environments.

I photographed the dinnerware in several different settings, in a home environment, outside of a house, and beside a household garbage bin. I also photographed the imprint that the box left in the snow, visually representing the absence of the items in a physical sense.

On a personal level, I am not at all attracted to the physical and aesthetic qualities of these plates (I’m rather fond of Fiesta Ware, actually). As a clumsy person, the qualities of bone china (tendency to chip, crack, and shatter) make me nervous. However, as a personal gift from my mother (whom I am extremely close to), the items take on a new meaning: they are now representative of a family history. However, having come without a detailed story of their former use (only that they had once belonged to ‘someone’ in our family), they are still partially bare objects to me, devoid of any real or substantive meaning.

In this project, I tried to visually reproduce the steps that I take mentally in trying to find a place for these items in my home, family, and life. I look forward to learning the detailed history of them in order that they find a place on my future dinner table.