Lives of Objects

8/6/2019 Lives of Objects

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THE LIVES OF OBJECTSa transcript of 5 interviews about objects and their

life in the lives of people


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ANNA CLAIRE SIMPSON

writer, musician & performer

On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you consider your

attachment to objects?

Probably because I was an only child and we moved

a lot as a kid, I think I developed a slightly unhealthy

attachment to my belongings, or certain ones at least,

and I tend to collect a lot of things which runs in

my family, my father collected books and

comic books and movies and you name it and

my mom collected antiques so I think I inherited

that trait.


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Imagine that your house caught re. What would be

ve objects you would take with you and why?

I guess the ve things I would save one would be or

I guess this is technically three or four things my

moms engagement and wedding ring andmy fathers wedding band. My parents divorced

when I was 5 and and I guess my mom carelessly had

given away her engagement ring and wedding ring to

one of my aunts in England and I guess a couple of

years ago I was on a vacation there visiting family and

my aunt sort of popped them in my hand and said

here I would imagine youd really want these more

than I would and Im glad she did because theyare actually, not only are they beautiful- they are

beautiful rings but they obviously represent

an important meaning in my life and my father

passed away about a year ago and I dug up in his be-

longings his wedding band from his marriage to my

mother so now these rings do kind of represent

a) someone that a lost and b) the relationship

that made me happen and other things I wouldrescue at this point would be a lot of photographs be-

cause that is really one thing you cant replace I have

a lot of photographs with my parents and my

extended family in England and I did actually

unfortunately loose a photo album at one point when

I carelessly moved some boxes -sorry I was moving

house- and left a box somewhere and it got swiped

and I lost a baby album of mine and that was the

one thing I cried about, I have no idea what else was

in that box but that was the one thing I knew it was

missing that was important to me and photographs

tend to be very important when someone dies

because its kind of the only visuals you have

left, so yeah, I would save as many photographs

as I could and I kind of keep them all in one

big box just for that kind of event, a re.


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Another thing I would rescue is a poetry book

that Ive had since I was a little child and my

mother used to read me poetry from this is A.

A. Milne who wrote the Winnie the Pooh stories and

poems and I suppose its kind of a symbolic item

for me more than anything else, just because I studyEnglish Literature and I write criticism and

I read a lot of poetry its part of that, and I guess

to me this book represents the seed where all

that started so this would be a big one and Id love

to be able to read these poems to my children

one day from the same book that, you know,

they were read to me from. And then I dont know,

i could debate a lot on another item so Ive got 1, 2,3... Another item that I think I might rescue would

be my dads ashes which I will grab and they are

in this big, heavy urn and I guess it would be kind

of a hard item to run and grab and get out of the

house quickly with but- part of me says I would res-

cue this but another part of me thinks I dont really

know what the point is because its ashes, my fathers

body was basically incinerated so it kind of representsdeath to me and to be honest I dont really look at this

urn ever and I dont touch it and I dont deal with it

it just sort of sits there as a decoration and I dont

really feel at this point I like focusing on my fathers

death but try to think about his life so that would be

a maybe but now Im thinking I wouldnt rescue this

I dont think its important. Then there is this

necklace around my neck, which is from Tiffanys

but its an Irish circle of life symbol and it was

a gift that my- a bunch of my family members

in England had chipped in and gotten for me

after my father died as a rememebrance and I

dont know, there is the urn and there is the necklace

and the necklace is supposed to be more a symbol

of life and its also a symbol to me of a joint ef-

fort on my familys part to try to comfort me,

make me feel better and give me somethingto remember my father by and that seems like

a life symbol to me as opposed to a death symbol.


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a piano is a big part of my life I can play

since I was 5 years old but frankly, I wouldnt

be able to do anything with it to drag it out

and on top of that the piano is all about whatI have in my hands and not the object itself


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Cant save my piano, thats a pretty big part of

my life too, but there is no way that can happen!

That would burn to the ground. A piano is a big

part of my life I can play since I was 5 years old

but frankly, I wouldnt be able to do anything with

it to drag it out and on top of that the piano is allabout what I have in my hands and not the

object itself so I guess I dont have an unhealthy

relationship with my piano, or an unhealthy attach-

ment. Those are probably the major items that mat-

ter to me the most, so I guess this is a good lesson and

I should keep these in one place, under my bed or

something. Generally speaking there is a lot of things

in my house I do have this tendency to collect butfrankly I have so many things that if something dis-

appeared one day Id probably wouldnt notice and

Ive had that happen where things were stolen and

a part of me was glad because all of the sudden the

responsability of owning it was out of my hands and

I didnt have to worry about the pain of giving it away

or selling it or something like that and therefore so

again, the responsability was on someone else so- thatis a non open invitation for people stealing from me.

Truth to be told though, being asked those questions

creates a little bit of anxiety for me about not only

which items I would choose but what kind of person

I would look like- Do I look like the person with

the sentimental objects? and therefore I just

look to the past? Or do I pick things that rep-

resent some big thing part of the now me? Or

the future me? Like I didnt pick any recordings

Ive done, any musical recordings because although it

seems like something that needs to be salvaged, I can

recreate that, its something that lives inside of me,

it has the possibility of being recreated. Something

about the objects that have a sentimental value and

are symbolic of the past, those really cant be recre-

ated so I guess thats why I tend to be a nostalgic per-

son, which is little embarrassing, Id like to be moremodern than that but there you go. That probably

sums up my relationship with objects.


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Could you name three objects that embody yourself ?

Thats a hard one. Embody myself. To be honest I

dont know if I can think of a single object that em-

bodies me, I think a lot of objects communicate

something about me the piano makes it obviousthat I play piano so I guess that is something I can

pick, speak to a big part of me, its symbolic of music

which is half my life, its specically the instrument

that I actually play but I dont think of it as embody-

ing me so Im not sure, I guess you can look at the

piano, a pile of books, I read a lot and I write a lot

and those things sort of speak of different parts of

me but I guess I feel less comfortable with isolating orselecting items like that, I dont know if I believe and

object can embody me, I dont know if its possible.

And if it was then probably everything in my house

would probably explain everything, every book I have

speaks to all the philosophies that I have in my head,

every old notebook from school, the way I process

that information, how I write and how I think, every

movie Ive watched or every DVD can be symbolic ofprobably everything Ive seen, my records, etc every

little piece will say something to that effect so I dont

know if I can isolate it, its either all of them or

none at all. Thats how I would answer that.


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something about the objects

that have a sentimental value

and are symbolic of the past,

those really cant be recreated so

I guess thats why I tend to be a

nostalgic person


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DAMIAN LAZARUS

dj



I used to be a lot more attached to my belongings,

Im a classic collector of stuff but then when I

left London to move to the States I realized I couldnt

bring everything with me so I realized actually most

of the things I own are pretty material and not as

important as I once thought they were to me but I

have a lot of things that are of personal value, so in a

scale from one to ten, well thats a difcult one. Id say,

somethings are kind of...these days I kind of acquired

and actually dont mean as much as they do but there

is a lot of stuff I have that Ive been collecting over

the years that have very sentimental value so

these things denitely I wouldnt want to be without.

So you would say you are more attached to things

youve collected overtime than singular, particularthings you have around?

I tend to be more closely attached to things that Ive

found in a special situation or if there is a

specic story connected to how I found it or

what my favorite thing was at the time, its

weird because I am really attached to all my books

and records, my music but I think I could survivewithout not nding something and just replacing it.


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I particularly like this, this is a cape that a good

friend of minemade for me which looks pretty

special on, I think this is something I would like tosave because if she was to do this again it would prob-

ably take her a couple of years to make it again. I

would take my studio which is downstairs so I could

continue to make music. I would probably take this

album which is called Dreamies which I found in

a store in Japan and its an aural graphic entertain-

ment for use on your stereo headphones or speakers,

an incredible mental experience, 100% recommend-ed for a beautiful eclectic journey into your imagi-

nation, its produced in uid stereo- of course- and

Dreamies provide you with a new form of personal

entertainment a splendid time is guaranteed for all.

and the sound does give a splendid time and its made

by this chap called Bill, Im not sure if he put his name

on it but I do know its Bill something and he made

this in 1973 and its one of the rst albums touse sampling and its very trippy and really

beautiful and there is just one guy in his crazy

mind and its very good I just used two tracks from

this album for my Fabric album last year, so thats

that... and then Id probably take this book which

is the making of the muppet show called Of

Muppets and Men and its basically all you need

to know about the muppets the making of, the mup-

pets being my favorite television show of my

childhood and adulthood and I also possess my

own couple of muppets which are downstairs, but I

gured I probably get more joy out of the book

and the memories of the muppet show, which

plays a very important part in my life and

these days. Finally, on a sentimental note probably

take this lighter which is my grandfathers, a

Dunhill lighter, which I remember playing withwhen he was alive and a smoker and that is prob-

ably...that would be my bits.


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So I can actually put all these belongings in a

tiny little bag, which is a little bit sad, really.


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If you asked me that question last year I think

a pack of cigarettes would probably be one of

them but now that I have given it up Im really saying

I have no life...Ha! Three objects? Oh god. Generallytoys, you know my house is full of toys with masks

and statues and odd I guess creative objects

that have a hint of childhood, maybe a hint

of spirituality, maybe a hint of magic that is

something that is very prominent in my life.

Ive a massive audiophile so I guess my record col-

lection.


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VOULA DASAKIS

architect



I guess I would be like a seven, I mean its hard for

me to let them go easy but I dont really feel like I

need them its like in the balance so I feel that makes

it a 7.

Where do you think that attachment comes from?

Well because its the stuff I use, and the stuff

I dont I get rid of after a certain amount of

time so it comes down to just the things that

I use, and so out of that its hard for me to let

them go if its something I use all the time but

I dont know, I still feel like its just stuffand if

I dont have it its not that big of a deal, its hard to

part with something, like your favorite kitchen

spoon because you use it everyday but are yougoing to keep it forever? Probably not. And if your

friend really loves it youll give it to them, you know?


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That embody me? Wow thats hard. I dont know how

to answer that. I guess it would be something out

of my kitchen. There would denitely be...I have

this wooden spoon that my mom used to useall the time, she probably even hit us with it, but

somehow, it was like out of the extra things I tood

THAT from her house and I always have that in my

kitchen so I think there is a lot of me in that. I have

this ring that I wear all the time that I bought

when I was in Greece and it was one of those mo-

ments where I was- my cousin and I, who is like my

sister, we saw it at the same time and we were likewow that is really beautiful and then after speaking

to the lady -this was a woman jewelrer who made all

this things, which is really unheard of in a place like

Greece where everything is run by men- and the one

that I picked had the bee on it and it was about

rebirth and I had gotten to Greece and I was living

in there for like 6 months trying to nish school and

didnt know if I should live there, have my dual citi-zenship and all, and so I picked that ring because

that is what spoke to me and that really em-

bodied why I was there at that time and so that

probably is one of those items that depicts a period

of time in my life but I think like it will...I mean its

really me, always. So that. My broken wooden

spoon and the ring.


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OSCAR MORAN

urbanist



Very attached, maybe 8 or 9. I want to say its not ev-

ery object that I own but there are specifc objects

that hold a history to me and maybe Im a fetish-

ist about that and its just my life, my history.

I think about my grandmother and she holds

the biggest archive of things that I could ever

think aboutand I was a little kid exploring those

when I was young and maybe I hold that because

of that and I learned to hold and endear a moment

in life or whatever have you thorough these objects

and its not everything, I could do without this bed,

I could do without this credenza, I could do without

that chest drawer, but I could not do without that

mask, that picture of me and Raul, I could

not do without that picture of me and my fa-

ther, I mean there are just certain objects that are apart of my history that I need to have close to

me, wherever I go, for the rest of my life.


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I learned to hold and endear a moment inlife or whatever have you thorought these

objects and its not everything, I mean

there are just certain objects that are part

of my history that I have to have close to

me, wherever I go, for the rest of my life


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It would probably be a few photographs, and its

probably because I was born in an era before

digital photography and the memories that Ihave are printed of my mother, of my father

and even my lover when I had one for 8 years

in my twenties, there is no digital memory of

that, and thats why I would take those, because they

are very dear to me, because they hold, I mean you

can see them there, they are signicant to me. Ev-

erytime I see them, it reminds me of a person

that I was in the past that I am no longer butI am sort of, because we evolve but its dear to my

heart, so maybe it would be four or ve portraits that

I would run with.

Would those be your items? Or the photos are just

one item and you have other four youd like to talk

about?

Im very emotional, I think the photos would do it

because I am very visualand that holds a link to

me and my past and my history and I would just take

the photos.

The ve objects would be these photos.


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I think there are objects that I have created that

in a way embody me or stages of who I was at

the time, there are these lamps that I made in my

mid-twenties, I dont have any of them here I gavethem away, people have them and they hold them

dear, so in a way whatever my creation is would em-

body me. I also have drawings and paintings

that not a lot of people see and maybe I did not

say this in the previous question but I would probably

take those drawings with me, because they are part of

who I was and who I am and what was impor-

tant to me at the time when I made themand Iwould run with them along with my pictures.

What is it about these lamps that embody you?

The quality of the lightingand there was this...

When I made lamps, and I would like to say that more

than lamps the paintings probably represent

me more than the lamps but I just thought ofthe lamps because thats whats out there and

I dont share the paintings with everybody but

the lamps, being from Mexico and growing up with

this high end- low end reality everywhere you

go, the lamps where creations of a very true high in-

dustrialized society, it was aluminium pieces that I got

custom cut, they were assembled manually, so to me

it was a way of showing the reality of where I came

from, this mix between high industrialized, high end

mixing it with craftsmanship and so the beauty of this

lamps is that I could create something that through

light could show an environment that had a history

of the reality of where I came from which is that, and

the end product was polished and it was pretty but

there was always a little hint that it was hand crafted

and that it came from where it came, and that to me

was important.


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I guess for me the most important thing about those

lamps was the process, it was lamps, it couldve

been anything. It was the process and also a part of

who I was at that time in Mexico city and my history

more so than the lamp, per se. It was just a mode

of expression.


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SISSY AND EDDIE CHACON

musicians



E- I would say a 5. Im kind of split down the middle

about this, I use to really feel like Sanson and

that my house was my power base and it gave

me great pride to have, you know, a beautiful

home, specially one that youve really put togeth-

er yourself, something that you are into. But after

going away for a year, and just giving it all up and

we lived out of a suitcase for a year I dont know I

learned over the last year most of the greatest joys

in life are about people and relationships not

things. An so Im split down the middle abou it, you

know. Its also its nice to go away but its also nice

to come back home and have our own environ-

mentspecially after sleeping in...we slept in 21 beds,

you know, we couch surfed a lot, stayed with a lot of

friends yeah, you really also see that, how other peo-ple would answer that question, you know you really

see how other people live and it was kind of amazing

that everyone sort of took us into their homes, I dont

know if I answered your question.


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S- I would say a 6. I love objects, I love things but

I think those things are replaceable and there is

always more, more amazing things to be found.

I would say six also because there is some objects

that... a lot of things just bring you temporary

hapiness but there are a few items that bringyou happiness over and over and joy over and

over and then you come home and you see that

piece that is very special to you and always

makes you feel tranquil or its comforting to

you and so a 6.

E- Thats a good point.


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S-My Iphone I think you would say the same

thing because we use it for everything, but no,

thats replaceable.E- No I would just say one would probably be my

hard drive and the reason why I say that its because

I have all my art, my art that Ive created, my

songwriting- so my hard drive for my songwriting

catalog.

S- Would we get the hard drive with all of our

pictures? Or are all of our pictures going to

the clouds?E- Well yeah hard drive would include...thats funny

because you could answer this with one thing, a hard

drive. Its got your art, your pictures, all the things that

you keep, or used to store in big boxes, this is a ques-

tion that is so affected by technology, its amazing,

yeah because, my art, my music, our pictures,

our memories, our documents, things people use

to put in those re safe boxes you know, the deed to

your house, insurance policy, things like that, is all in

a hard drive. Its funny how this answer has changed

because a few years ago there was a re in the neigh-

borhood and the neighborhood really almost burned

down. It was a huge re and we had to empty out our

prized possessions and at that point I took all

my gold records and we threw them all in the car,

these awards from my career and now, four years lat-

er, I wouldnt even grab those, cause I just dont give

a shit about those. I dont know what changed in me.

I guess they were these tremendous sort of...it was so

close, closer to the event, it was a tremendous source

of pride and it was all like ok cool. I wouldnt grab

those, this time. And we grabbed at the time, our big

at panel television, which is another technol-

ogy thing, they are not valuable anymore, so

I wouldnt grab that, grab the records or awards, Iwould just grab my hard drive with things that can-

not be replaced which is pictures and songs, pictures

and music, I guess you could say I would grab my art.


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There is some art around here I really love.

S- I think that painting over there.

E- I really love art. I love things that are

touched by the hands of another person, so

I value...my criteria would be take the soul-

ful stuff. Art has soul and all the other stuff like thiscouch who cares, it can all be replaced. I didnt give

you a number but...

S- Yeah. I think that piece of art there, I think I

wouldve answered differently before we took this

year on a trip. We schlepped around two big 50

pound suitcases each of stuff we shipped a box home

it took 6 weeks to come and we were worried about

it and then we were like what the fuck was even inthat box? we couldnt even remember what was so

important that we had to ship back.

E- When that box nally arrived I didnt even take

anything out of it.

S- It just sat there.

E- I dont even know why we shipped it! Its just

crap.

S- I need to look around a little bit... the big em-

broidery portraitI think I would take.

E- I would take your art. Things that youve cre-

ated.

S- Things that Ive made.


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Lives of Objects