24 significant objects

What stories do Objects tell?

In Ways of Seeing, John Berger discusses how perceptions can shift based on the stories surrounding the image. He states: "The meaning of an image is changed according to what one sees immediately beside it or what comes immediately after it."

I asked 24 people to : take a photograph(s) curating your most precious objects, collections, or artifacts, do not move these items from the space in which they exist. Tell me a story behind why these things are meaningful to you.

Sarah, a collector of stuffed animals who is self-conscious yet proud about her precious objects states: "So I’ve attached a picture of my precious objects in their “natural habitat.” Weird and sad, maybe a little. But I love them." --Sarah

Objects narrate the intimate details behind the collector through the stories, beliefs and memories these things can provoke. I collected 24 diverse objects via email in order to explore the stories surrounding the collection and how a viewer's marriage of the story to image transforms based on their [his or her] perspective.
When the object, collection or artifact surrounding the story is omitted from the narrative, the reader is left with the history of what makes these things significant to the collector---compelling them to take a second look.

"24 significant objects" allows the viewer to add his or her perspective to a displayed collection(of people's precious objects) by juxtaposing a text(story) to an image of the object. I designed a system where transparent images from the collections sit on top of a light box, as velum printed texts are displayed on both sides of the light box. On the velum text, I subtracted the words of the objects from the stories. These subtracted words exist on the transparent images where the word would exist within the written text when matched. "28 significant objects" gives the viewer an opportunity take a closer look by pairing the story behind the image.


Thank you for sharing your stories:

Chris Becker Caitlin Boyle Katie Casamassimo NIcole Rife Chan Liza Chrust Jiyon Hong Dee Kim Yu-seung Kim Wes Kull Mike Lavora Myriam Lavora Damian Lopez Sarah Moore Yoo Kyoung Noh Mari Nakano Ana Ramos Jules Weiss