Embodied Memory: Stories Of Inhabited Souvenirs
4 rue du Nez-en-Vrac, 33800, Bordeaux
https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/items/0e1b597c-08d2-44a8-9c6e-fea05666ae62
Materials: plywood, balsa wood, diverse fabric pieces, bundle dyed cotton, thread, buttons, dried flower petals, coral, butterfly wings, horse chestnut, paper, and bone china withclear glazing.
Dimensions : 30x21x12cm
This artist book is the embodiment of my Master’s Thesis research. It is not merely an end-product, but both the process of this Master’s thesis as well as its reflections and finality. Although it cannot really be finished, it represents and reflects my own experiences of home.
Composed of a variety of materials, wood, fabrics, bone china, etc., I used and chose them with care. It represents all the dualities of my Master’s Thesis research, the materials allowed me to reflect and put in practice these dualities. Wood represents a professional construction material, and is commonly associated to masculine work. Using wood and learning to handle woodwork studio machines was a challenge for me. Textiles, sewing and embroidery on the contrary are often gendered as feminine, and have historically not been considered as art because it was the work of women, it is viewed as amateurism, or handicraft as best. Using it in the context of architecture was a way to reclaim it as a valid practice.
I chose to work with bone china to play with the conventions with have in architecture about modelmaking, by using this valuable material I am therefore giving a precious quality to the objects I modeled. Both children’s treasures: hair pin, dice, Barbie shoe, shells, buttons, dinosaurs, as well as buildings: houses, apartment blocks, cabins, towers, villages, trees. It gives them another dimension to what they represent. They are in-between architect’s models, and artist’s sculptures.
The form of this artistic production took naturally the form of an artist book. It resonates with the professionalism of the architect’s model, practice made and acquired during my six years of architecture studies, and the amateurism of the doll house, resulting from a childhood fascination for making things. The form of a book made sense as it tells a multitude of stories, my own experiences of home, the houses I design for others, the stories that I have read, the fictional architectures I have lived in, the theoretical authors I have read…