#176: The Flat
The home as a careful curation of objects
Welcome to my flat — both an object and a container of objects.
While a flat is not an object like a book or a pen that you can hold, it is
‘a material thing that can be seen and touched.’
It is a structure made of bricks and mortar that creates one whole entity: my flat.
But it also contains objects — my things/stuff/clutter/belongings — objects I need; objects I prize; objects I have been given; objects I don’t quite know why I possess.
Walk into my flat and you would see an imprint of me, through the collection and curation of objects inside. Like this blog, each object at some time or other was selected by me to stay inside this flat. And the walls of the flat itself act as the boundaries of my collection. Above and beside me are other collections of objects, inside other flats, telling the stories of other lives.
Some of them will contain objects belonging to multiple people, creating a less direct picture of the people inside, and simultaneously creating a snapshot of the relationship between those people. What do they do together? Play games on the Play station? Read the books on the shelves? Spoon each other in the bed?
I was thinking about the specific curation of objects inside my flat because yesterday I had a belated flatwarming party. I invited various people to come and spend time with me in my home. Some had seen the flat evolve, some had just seen photos, and for some, this was their first ever viewing.
I wondered what they would see. Would they see me written all over the arrangement of objects? I am clear in the books on the bookshelves and the pair of boots sat by the door, but would they see me in the herbs growing on the windowsill, in my choice of cushions? I hoped so.
Interestingly, while I was hoping that my guests would see me in the objects inside my flat, one guest, a certain Katie, brought me an object she herself had chosen to go inside my flat, and something she saw me in.
In lovely lilac paper, Katie presented me with a citrus squeezer. And a very nice one at that. She knew I liked making lemon drizzle cakes and she filled a gap in my kitchen utensils that aided that pass time of mine.
And in the giving of that gift, Katie had thought about me and my flat and the objects inside, and found a way to add to that collection.
It seems my guests did see me in my flat’s objects after all, so much so that they knew what else should be inside.
