Thursday saw a new set of visitors to Situate.
Alejandra: was first up, with her ceramic cat El Gatto. El Gatto was made in Mexico, but Alejandra found him at Value Village, here in Regina. He is one of a collection of many ceramic felines, but El Gatto is the only one to have been given a name, a voice and particular characteristics. El Gatto is the head honcho of the ceramic cat shelf, which is shared with a corresponding collection of plastic dinosaurs. He oversees affairs, and is a bit of a ladies' cat.
Alejandra's introduction of this charming ornament let to interesting conversation, touching on necessity and decoration, in domestic space, the desire to live compactly and succinctly as a natural collector, and dusting, as disgusting domestic chore.
I have yet to get started on a "cozy" for El Gatto, but am eagerly anticipating the task!
Alejandra's introduction of this charming ornament let to interesting conversation, touching on necessity and decoration, in domestic space, the desire to live compactly and succinctly as a natural collector, and dusting, as disgusting domestic chore.
I have yet to get started on a "cozy" for El Gatto, but am eagerly anticipating the task!
Bruce: arrived next at 12:30, with an Alessi stove-top espresso coffee pot, designed by architect Alder Rossi.
In addition to sharing a wealth of information about industrial design and architecture, Bruce told me a handful of intertwined stories, that involved the coffee pot in question, whose handle is recently broken, but only after 25 years of daily use.
The first story involved the acquisition of said coffee pot, while Bruce was living in Rome. The second tale involved a road trip from Saskatoon with some friends, and a visit ot the Italian Star Deli, in search of a new O ring for the pot. An interaction with Carlos, the owner of Italian star deli, played a seminal role in Bruce's decision to move to Regina, and, years later, to be sitting in a chair, on top of a raised platform, talking with me at Situate.
Objects do have a real power over us...what a coffee pot.
Again, no fabrication yet, on my part, but I am scheming up a suitable cozy to make for this interesting little pot.
The first story involved the acquisition of said coffee pot, while Bruce was living in Rome. The second tale involved a road trip from Saskatoon with some friends, and a visit ot the Italian Star Deli, in search of a new O ring for the pot. An interaction with Carlos, the owner of Italian star deli, played a seminal role in Bruce's decision to move to Regina, and, years later, to be sitting in a chair, on top of a raised platform, talking with me at Situate.
Objects do have a real power over us...what a coffee pot.
Again, no fabrication yet, on my part, but I am scheming up a suitable cozy to make for this interesting little pot.
Last conversation of the day was
Rachelle: who traveled all the way back from Coventry, UK. to attend her conversation!
Rachelle, my lovely graduate supervisor, had left a peculiar orange jar/vessel on my desk before she left the University of Regina a few months back. I didn't know it at the time, but the vessel was her intended "personal object."
Rachelle: who traveled all the way back from Coventry, UK. to attend her conversation!
Rachelle, my lovely graduate supervisor, had left a peculiar orange jar/vessel on my desk before she left the University of Regina a few months back. I didn't know it at the time, but the vessel was her intended "personal object."
A strange object, the orange jar/container/bowl is exceptionally round, exceptionally shiny, and exceptionally shiny. Topped with a gold bobble knob, it's size and shape necessitates a two armed hold, and makes a real statement.
The jar was a seminal object in Rachelle's apartment here in Regina, but she chose not to take it with her when she moved to the UK. It would often get filled with, as Rachelle put it, "nonsense." Old batteries, nick nacks, bits of paper, things that were out of sight, but not completely out of mind.
Our conversation shifted to the everyday detritus that accumulates in our lived spaces, how this says as much about us as human beings, as anything else we own; our processes of sifting and ordering in the act of moving and occupying spaces; and Rachelle's memory of enjoying ice-cream treats inside of hollowed-out orange fruits as a child.
The jar was a seminal object in Rachelle's apartment here in Regina, but she chose not to take it with her when she moved to the UK. It would often get filled with, as Rachelle put it, "nonsense." Old batteries, nick nacks, bits of paper, things that were out of sight, but not completely out of mind.
Our conversation shifted to the everyday detritus that accumulates in our lived spaces, how this says as much about us as human beings, as anything else we own; our processes of sifting and ordering in the act of moving and occupying spaces; and Rachelle's memory of enjoying ice-cream treats inside of hollowed-out orange fruits as a child.
We ended our conversation with an agreement that I would hand deliver the cozied orange jar/receptacle to her in the UK, at an undetermined date in the future.
Hooray for future collaborations!
Hooray for future collaborations!