Participants selected items significant of their cultural background for this project. A Polaroid camera was used to photograph the items. In turn, the photographs were sealed in jars filled with such natural preserving agents as oil, sugar, and vinegar. The goal was to associate the Polaroid’s process of transformation: chemical reactions, fermentations, color changes and decay; a notation of everything in a state of change, ultimately lost to memory. The project also references the popularity of NYC’s Lower East Side’s pickle industry, as well as humanity’s age-old habit of preserving food. The images offer an interesting, visually arresting element that soaks new life into an old one. Enjoy!
Descriptive text, in participants’ own words, follows each image.
Left: One is my mother’s father’s yellow coffee pot. I’ve brought it with me because it is truly a handed-down domestic item that my grandfather used daily, but also because the design is beautiful and a collector’s item today. - Malin Abrahamsson
Right: The image is of my mother’s mother’s hand-woven kitchen towels. They’ve followed me to NY for similar reasons as my grandfather’s coffee pot; she not only hand made these towels but she also used them in her home and then passed them on to my mother. I use them in my home myself because they’re beautiful and also because my grandmother’s initials are the same as both my mother’s and my own: MA. - Malin Abrahamsson
Left: Three passports, two expired and one valid, the only remaining belongings from my homeland. Vintage Japanese silk, a gift from my friend, makes me reminisce about my country once was and long gone now, like myself. - Hiroshi Kumagai
Right: it’s a picture of my architectural tools. One is to brush off the dust and the other is to measure. they are both very portable and I have been carrying these two items from places to places I explored. They are in a way my mojo. Lucky charm for my architectural work. - Jee Hoon Stark
Left: What you see on the photo is my ‘Dirndl’. That is the traditional Bavarian (South German State I am from) dress for women. I took it to New York, Hawaii and Korea with me. I never wore it in any of these places but it is nice to have it with me. - Juliane Eirich
Right: My grandma was a self taught artist, born in China and emigrated to Malaysia when she was 10 years old. This projector was one of her many medium used to preserve our childhood memories.. she taught me I can be anything I want if I have the will. - Penny Yuen
