Yesterday was day 17 of ‘Connected’ an online project I created as a way of reaching out and staying in touch with those around me during the April lockdown. As someone who’s interested in objects as indicators of the passing of time, these brooches (particularly the larger of the two) hold strong memories of the places in which I acquired them and mark the number of years that have passed since I came to own them.
The larger one’s been kept for over 30 years and bears the marks of wear and tear. It’s a beautifully crafted piece of vintage jewellery and was given to me as a gift by Trish, the manager of a retro clothing store who I worked for in the late 1980s in upstate New York. My subsequent friendship with Trish and my love of ballet means that, in spite of not having worn it for some years now, I’ve held onto this exquisite brooch. It became something more cherished and precious following Trish’s untimely death a few years after I returned to the UK.
The smaller one is something I picked up from Greenwich market probably about 20 years ago, from a stall where a woman specialised in selling things from the 50s/60s era. She would often sell multiples of things and I recall the labels on the pieces of card the ballerina (and a small deer) were mounted on being stamped with ‘Made in Hong Kong.’ I also remember the ballerina brooch being one of many on the day I bought it – certainly not unique! It’s kept in good shape, despite it being of far inferior quality compared to the one given to me by Trish – cheaply manufactured and mass-produced by the same company who made the small deer brooch that I posted on day 2. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s sweet and reminiscent of my childhood when cheap jewellery was freely available and accessible to all – pocket money trinkets.
I’m now half way through ‘Connected’ and have enjoyed the process of pairing up the various objects I’ve gathered together – similar, but fitting together perfectly as a unit, through their difference. The daily process of sorting, finding and posting images of paired up objects on social media has provided me with a structure in an otherwise upside down world. But it’s gone beyond that in the past day or two and I’ve had to stop and take note of the emotional impact some of the objects have had on me, recognising that some are of greater sentimental value than others – of no real monetary value but ultimately, priceless – charged with the emotions associated with them. I wrote a short post about the heightened significance of lockets a couple of days ago – how much more symbolic they became at a point in time when we are universally surrounded by death and mourning. In a similar vein, the brooch Trish gave me took on a different meaning when I learned of her death – and here I am, years later, acknowledging that. Objects really do have the power to be the containers of strong emotion, it seems.
There’s been a nice positive response to ‘Connected’ online; images of small attractive objects are a welcome distraction from the real horror surrounding us, I imagine. But their appeal I think, also lays in the fact that so many of these objects resonate and evoke powerful, nostalgic memories. If ever there was a time for looking back with affection and sentimental longing for the past, it is now.
