Last week a new project was launched at Treecreate Studio – BAGGAGE. The project focuses on memory and storytelling through motif and fashion object of desire – the handbag.
BAGGAGE is an evolving installation exploring human compulsion, collections and consumerism.
It started out as a means to explore my personal obsession with collecting handbags. Why was I holding on to so much physical baggage, ultimately weighing me down and not in alignment with my values – despite the fact most of them were bought in an op shop. Why did I need these bags? Was it the stories they could tell through their design, or was it the materials they were made from? Or just sheer aesthetic pleasure at seeing these objects as art forms in their own right.
And then there was the emotional baggage – WHOA!! Even thinking of using creative process as research to explore some of my baggage and in turn engage with audiences to be an ear to their problems. Being an agony aunt seemed like a natural alignment for this project. You see, I don’t want to just give these bags back to the op shop as I found them for a reason – for their quirkiness, their quality, patterns, fabrics and forms.
BAGGAGE suggests that perhaps we can have ways of exchange which are rich in social value – through a process of connection and care. Stories could be shared in exchange for a bag, or a drawing of a bag, a process which was about the sharing and confiding of stories rather than a purely transactional process of buying a handbag…
The project is also using social media platforms Instagram and Facebook to share documentation, poetry and imagery from BAGGAGE.
Here is an example of a short poem.
So much we carry is invisible.
Yet it is always with us,
Slightly obscured.
Sometimes deliberately hidden.
Parts of our story
Which we salvage.
Remodel.
Or cast aside.
—
Iteration v0.5 of #Baggage at
#TreecreateStudio
If you would like to participate please reach out to me via contact page.
Treecreate Studio | Opening hours
12:30 – 14:00 on Mon-Wed, Fri-Sat
Shop 2, Bellara Arcade
25 Benabrow Ave
Bribie Island
Tracey M Benson || Bytetime 