beginning elsewhere

one of the elsewhere unicorns - monica lacey 2013

Well, I'm almost a week into my residency in one of those places in the world that is very difficult to describe. Elsewhere is definitely a place that needs to be experienced to be understood. Imagine taking a time machine to the past but then the past is an abandoned place that artists and time have had they way with...I'm still not doing it justice. An easier thing might be to read about the history of it here. Let's just say that all the horses here are unicorns.

I'm in the early stages of my project at Elsewhere and part of that involves investigating artists who have done similar projects in the past, or things that I might reference, like a lineage my project will join. The first of those I've found is Claire Cronin and her project love songs for lost objects. Her use of psychometry was really inspiring, as were her songs as I listened along, arranging found collection objects and trying to sense their significance.

My project involves fortune telling using objects. It's a fascinating thing, infusing random things with meaning...we spend so much of our lives with stuff. But what life do things have on their own? In so many ways they wouldn't exist without us. Down the rabbit hole of man-made objects and what they mean to us...much more to come :)