Suitcases.

A suitcase.


I am now working with the idea of a home containing a life- possessions that are a person. Although objects really mean nothing, when someone is gone, what they leave behind are their things. If someone travels, whether it is often for instance, with their job, or just occasionally on holiday; what they take in their suitcase is them. It is specifically with this idea I am investigating. 
            I, firstly, asked people to fill a suitcase with their things. Only a small suitcase, and the things could be ANYTHING. The idea was that what they put in the suitcase would be them. It could be what they would actually put in a suitcase, or completely random. 

        Some people (image 1) chose to create a selection of memories/ favourite things: something that when looking at it could really demonstrate the characteristics of a person. Whereas, some people (image 2 and 3) chose just things they had with them, which in the case of image 2 was still quite a good indicator of their likes and interests. However image 3 shows what I would class to be the most random suitcase, which doesn't show much about the person. I loved the contrast of things- and in particular, the amount of things. 
        For each suitcase I noted what objects were chosen, and I then created tags for each image. My idea was mostly to demonstrate how possessions can mean nothing (I noted them on one side of the tag with the bare minimum of information) and yet can be everything to a person- or an actual person (on the opposite side of the tag I used more detail- therefore giving more detail of the person.). 

The collection is not finished, I wish to add to it- hopefully an entire wall of people and their lives within boxes. 




A home within a box. 


The idea of dollhouses has been brought into my studies, mostly by the flats in Camberwell I photographed, and the exhibition 'Psycho buildings' that Rachel Whiteread completed a piece for.  Whilst using the suitcases I experimented with furniture from dollhouses- a home inside a suitcase- a metaphor for the possessions in a suitcase. 

I also completed these suitcases because I wanted to produce a piece in the likeness of two by Duchamp  and Joseph Cornell; they created a whole persona in photos and papers inside a suitcase. The results are displayed on complete white backgrounds which I thought was very effective. 

 This whole idea is progressing well and I feel there are a lot more paths I can go down. I would specifically like to do something involving light, drawing inspiration from the aforementioned Rachel Whiteread exhibition.