small objects
(Sometimes I still make things that aren't floating in the ether. I never used coasters before I came to England--well, maybe very occasionally, but not as a matter of course--but here it seems like many people use them. One day, I saw these plain linen coasters [and placemats, but I haven't done those yet] at Muji; it happened to be the day after I'd signed the application for the house I'll live in next year. Nothing feels quite so homelike as making things for your own home. So I am.)
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Small objects figure for me as sites of resistance. Small narratives, too (I was so pleased to find the work of Jean-François Lyotard this week-- he calls these narratives 'petits récits,' which makes a special kind of sense to me in terms of the work I'm doing: lovers continually re-recite their own story to one another in order to confirm its reality to themselves and to affirm its difference from grand narratives). The small is beneath notice, often; it can function as a differend, an unresolvable left-over.
Choosing the small is not a heroic action. It barely bears witness to the differend. But still, in quiet ways, it is an action against commonly held ideas and modes, and that is its importance.
--
Small objects figure for me as sites of resistance. Small narratives, too (I was so pleased to find the work of Jean-François Lyotard this week-- he calls these narratives 'petits récits,' which makes a special kind of sense to me in terms of the work I'm doing: lovers continually re-recite their own story to one another in order to confirm its reality to themselves and to affirm its difference from grand narratives). The small is beneath notice, often; it can function as a differend, an unresolvable left-over.
Choosing the small is not a heroic action. It barely bears witness to the differend. But still, in quiet ways, it is an action against commonly held ideas and modes, and that is its importance.
posted by Eireann at
9:12 AM
4 Comments:
You should read Michel de Certeau, "Walking in the City," The Practice of Everyday Life
I read it this fall! Thank you for reminding me--I loved it and I want to read it again.
Coasters and small narratives tied up together in the one post... I couln't be happier.
cheers, g
I, living and breathing England, have never used a coaster of my own in my life. I have various inherited pieces of wooden furniture which I cherish, and always think I ought to make myself some coasters; I dislike the (mostly) silly little objects, but I think I ought to show my furniture some respect. Now, having seen yours, perhaps I might
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