Sunday, April 5, 2026

Three Objects




I’ve had this mug for almost 4 years, ever since I filled my dorm with a plethora of thrift store items in my freshman year in an attempt to make it slightly less prisoncell-esque. In those four years, it has become one of my favorite possessions (sorry for the sentimentality). It has a mystique and a mystery about its origin and who made it/why they did, and why it ended up in an Appleton thrift store. What I really like about objects like this is that they point very directly to a distinct story (with the eyes and it being in a thrift store), but that story is completely unknowable and always will be. 




While I took some more photos of this Freud-Winnie the Pooh pinata after I brought it back to my room, nothing really beats the way I originally found it. I think this object speaks to me in a similar way to the mug. It must have had a story (a very specific story), but it also must have outlived its usefulness (whatever that might have been). The whole idea of a forgotten or discarded item really can say a lot, from the Sigmund-pooh pinata to the free books in the library that no one checked out for twenty years, something about them has outlived their cultural usefulness, and while I might never know quite what that was, it still sparks something. 


                                                                      
These bird scissors came to me rather serendipitously as I was taking a walk right after our class on Wednesday. They were in the mud in the middle of city park, after washing them, I realized how high quality and beautiful they really were. I don’t have quite as much to say about these as my other two items, but the fact that I found such an odd object right after we finished class felt like fate, and I just had to include them.

                   


1 comment:

  1. I think you have a collection of three really fascinating objects. I am interested in the way that you talk about these all coming into your possession - and how the meaning of the objects is shaped by the experiences you have with them. You can speculate about the objects and their history as much as you want, but you only really ever have your own story with them!

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