‘When the real is no longer what it used to be, nostalgia assumes its full meaning’
-Baudrillard
To take an object that can have little or no value and present it as something with a much higher perceived value is the point of focus in this work.
Previously I have tried to detach myself from having to give a monetary value to the work, how does one place a value on something which puts such impetus on the viewers opinion? I have used cultural byproducts, such as the receipt, to create work from, which in turn removes me from the equation, giving the end product a predetermined value dependent entirely on the start point.
Having written my dissertation on Bourriaud’s theories of postproduction, the idea of taking an existing cultural object or product and changing it’s context and re-presenting it is not something entirely new to me. However the concept of taking something with little value to most and trying to change that perceived value is what could be seen as the antitheses to my previous concerns.
To present an object steeped in nostalgia, on my part, and to offer this to you at value I deem high enough by way of sentimental prowess, I am selling you the memories these treasures hold within, not just the mere object. Each one presented openly for you to experience, but with the unconvention of the memories only available to purchase via the popular internet auction site ebay. This aims to question whether the sentiment lies within the object itself or the memory can still remain as strong without it’s material link.
Presenting the objects as they are , each in their own cardboard box, which then together amounts to a shelving unit of sorts, was partly inspired by the work of artist Song Dong, whose mother has similar hoarding abilities to my own mother, who has kept these objects as they have been since last used, in storage, in boxes. To present them then like this felt like a natural progression, as well as it being pivotal to the idea that as each item has the possibility of being sold the box is ready to be taped up and shipped off, each having it’s own mailing label ready for use, as efficiently as possible.
There is a real juxtaposition manifesting between these ideas of nostalgia and memories within objects and the use of a blog instead of a sketchbook, and ebay within the work. This is something I felt it was important to maintain to avoid any oversentimentality, and has also been an aspect I looked at when writing my dissertation – the use of new technologies to change the context of previously though nostalgic concepts, which is one of the ways I have described postproductiion in relation to postmodernism.
