Week 10- Objects as narratives

For exploring more of objects as storytellers, I searched for artists who use objects to communicate and telling stories.

Song Dong: Waste Not

The project’s conception stretches back to the sudden death of Song Dong’s father which drove Xiangyuan into a relentless state of depression and grief; this mourning and sense of immense loss, combined with a childhood set against the backdrop of a cultural revolution, political and social turmoil and natural disasters, Song Dong’s mother began to take the Chinese philosophy of “Wu Jin Qi Yong” (Waste Not), to an impressive extreme. However, “Wu Jin Qi Yong” was not only a way of life specific to Song Dong’s mother; it was a common survival tactic for a whole generation of Chinese, a generation bound by a fear of shortage. Waste Not illuminates the concepts of family, grief and memory, such sensitivity under the clinical lighting of the Curve space seems to become lost. Each object looses a little of its attachment to the human life it was once part of. (Text by Claire Hazelton)

Kathy King

Kathy King’s narrative vessels, tiled furniture and printmaking, either presented individually, or combined in installation, present narratives from a feminist point of view. Her ultimate objective is to translate her own experience, specifically as a contemporary woman, in relation to social culture dealing with such issues as sexual orientation, reproduction and issues of the body and gender. Her imagery, reminiscent of an underground comic book style, uses satirical humor, irony and sarcasm to map her journey from pubescence to menopause.

Crafting Narrative

Crafting Narrative: Storytelling through objects and making is curated by Onkar Kular explores how contemporary designers and makers use objects to tell stories. The exhibition looks at practitioners who challenge and investigate the narrative potential of objects and making to convey and reflect on themes as diverse as history, culture, society and technology.

(text and pics available:http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/crafting-narrative/)

Objects as narratives reminds me of a book I read before, which talks about everything is culture defined. We see things as what they are because we are taught in that way. Therefore, under different cultures , circumstances, a same thing can be referred to something totally different. I think use objects as narratives is a bit similar idea because when you use them as narratives, you can no longer see the objects as what they are. When an object becomes a storyteller, you embody it a brand new meaning and the meaning might be differ due to individuals. Also, it gives me an idea that why children are usually more creative than adults. Because children are not educated yet, they don’t see a object as a particular thing, they are not limited by what they known, they see more possibilities and potentials an object can be.