Objects&Lives features short writing and imagery reflecting on household and personal objects that hold value through the memories they hold and their associations with family and cultural history. They often include recollections unique to the writer. Who will know of these stories when we are gone? And does it matter?
Object&Lives draws on several lineages. One is past British Museum Director Neil Macgregor’s “History of the World in One Hundred Objects”, a story told exclusively through the things that humans have made. Another is what poet Robert Bly called ‘Object poems’ in which ‘the object itself… links with the human psyche’; and ‘things themselves have opinions or points of view’. A third influence was the residency of artist Ali Kazim at the Ashmolean Museum, where Kazim drew inspiration from objects in the museum’s collection from Gandhara, where he originates. He believes ‘objects can connect us, directly and viscerally, to the people who originally made and used them’. And finally, Swiss-German philosopher Byung-Chul Han writes ‘Things are points of stability in life… ‘Objects stabilise human life insofar as they give it a continuity’.
Objects&Lives was initiated by Peter Reason and many of the objects features come from his own life experience. Peter has found that many any people appreciate and enjoyed his writing in this form, and several have adopted it in prose and poetry. Peter welcomes contributions from other writers and artists. Please send short pieces (max 750 words) with appropriate images via email to peterreason@me.com.
