Object Love

Commissioned by Worcester Museums, 2020 for From The Art Gallery With Love x Digital animations using found images and drawings Object Love: 7 mins 48 secs Object Love is an animated video of artworks and objects from the collection of Museums Worcestershire and from people’s own homes. I think of it as a moving ‘still life’ that brings a new perspective to the things that we collect in the museum and in our homes. We all have things in our homes that we cherish, whether they have monetary value or for sentimental reasons, and many museum objects are items that were once in an individual’s home. In autumn 2020, I invited people to choose an object, and tell me the story behind it for Object Love, an artwork commissioned by Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum. Worcester’s art gallery is housed in one of the oldest museums in the country; the Worcester Museums collection of objects and art is very varied and full of fascinating things. I also collected images of some of the objects that people have at home that they cherish. The animation contains many of the suggestions that people sent to me, but there are a few that I couldn’t include in the film, but are still very interesting. This document contains the objects suggested and the stories behind those choices. My recent work has explored the Memento Mori/Vanitas painting tradition, which was an idea that started in the 17th century. Artists created paintings that gathered together objects, which could include flowers, fruit, vegetables, insects, skulls, books, clocks and so on. The translation of ‘memento mori’ is ‘remember you must die’ and the idea was to remind people that they should live their lives to the full. I like to think of it as a nudge about possessions and materialism that reminds us that, ‘You can’t take it with you.’