An Assessment of the Value of Souvenirs Penny Grennan
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Your Trash, My Treasure: An assessment of the value of souvenirs Penny Grennan PhD A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the University of Northumbria at Newcastle for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences January 2015 1 Abstract. Your Trash, My Treasure: An assessment of the value of souvenirs. The importance of the object as a means of understanding the human world is an area of enquiry in Academic and Arts Practice. It spans a range of disciplines, particularly the new cross disciplinary area of Material Culture Studies, which reflects the increasing interest in the object and its role in our lives. The aim of this study is to identify the qualities of the souvenir that give it value, in order to add to the discourse surrounding the role of objects in understanding our world. This thesis considers the qualities of souvenirs in the light of critical theory, case studies, my Fine Art practice and exhibitions, and contemporary Fine Artists. I posit that the souvenir is an object with particular distinguishing features and that these distinct qualities are what give it its value. I will argue that the ‘narrative of origins’ of souvenirs (Stewart, 2007) is what gives them their value and I use the term ‘value’ in relation to their emotional, material, cultural and personal currency. The souvenir is often regarded as a ‘fallen object’ (MacCannell, 1976), but I will argue that in terms of personal narrative and social resonance the souvenir is a neglected area of study that enters value systems at every level. My practice comprises painting and film making, and through this I have investigated and articulated my relationship with my own souvenirs. During the case study interviews I devised the terms Object Plus, Souvenir Moment and Souvenir Dynamic to encode our relationship to souvenirs. These are important new terms which help to articulate the unique qualities of souvenirs. The study of the souvenir, as an object in its own right, has mainly been confined to its relationship with tourism and fictional writing and, with the exception of Susan Stewart’s work, has been largely neglected. This thesis argues that souvenirs, despite their associations with cheapness, ubiquity and kitsch, are our most potent objects and are therefore deserving of greater attention. 2 Contents Abstract 2 Contents 3 List of Figures 6 Acknowledgements 9 Declaration 10 Chapter 1. Introduction 11 1.1. Background and Context 12 1.2. My Practice 15 1.3. Methodology 16 1.4. Chapter Outlines 18 Chapter 2. The Souvenir in Theory 20 2.1. What is an Object? 21 2.1.1. Producing Things 22 2.1.2. Taste/Value 23 2.1.3. Attachment 24 2.1.4. Sign Value 24 2.2. The Personal 26 2.2.1. Literature and Things 29 2.2.2. Personal Contamination 30 2.3. The Object and the Souvenir 32 3 Chapter 3. Practice in Practice 37 3.1. My Home and My Collection 37 3.2. Painting the Souvenir 44 3.2.1. The Painting as Object 50 3.2.2. Commentary on Paintings 51 3.3. Film Making 64 3.4. Photography 71 Chapter 4. Multiple Narratives and Memory 73 4.1. Multiple Narratives: Recognising Objects 73 4.2. Activating Memory: The relationship between Memory and Narrative 74 4.2.1. The Role of External and Internal Memories in my Paintings 78 4.3. Narrating the Archive: Archiving the Narrative. 81 Chapter 5. Collectors and Collecting 90 5.1. Collecting 90 5.2. How Collectors Regard Themselves 93 5.2.1. Interview with a Collector 93 5.3. Gallery and Museum Collections: Changing Narratives 100 Chapter 6. Style and Value 105 6.1. Your Kitsch, My Souvenir 105 6.1.2 1950’s and 60’s Kitsch: The Individual and the Mass Produced 107 4 6.1.3. Kitsch and Hierarchies of Taste and Value 109 6.2. Value and Authenticity 112 6.3. Value and Display 114 Chapter 7. Cultural Currency and Cultural Seepage 118 7.1. Made in China 118 7.2. Making Souvenirs in Haiti 127 7.3. Cultural Seepage in Lamu 130 Chapter 8. Case Study Evaluation and Conclusion 133 8.1. Case Study Evaluation 133 8.2. Conclusion 148 References 153 Appendices 164 5 List of Figures Chapter 3 Figure 1: My Souvenirs 38 Figure 2: My Souvenirs 38 Figure 3: My Souvenirs 39 Figure 4: My Souvenirs 39 Figure 5: My Souvenirs 40 Figure 6: My Souvenirs 40 Figure 7: My Souvenirs 41 Figure 8: My Souvenirs 41 Figure 9: My Souvenirs 42 Figure 10: My Souvenirs 42 Figure 11: The Photograph (2011) 45 Figure 12: The Painting (2011) 45 Figure 13: Kookaburras (2010 On a shelf with other objects). 46 Figure 14: Figure 14: Snow Globe (2010 Wiping the paint, animating the object, obscuring the past). 46 Figure 15: Elephant. (2010 Blurring the background) 46 Figure 16: Garden Gnome (2013 A plain flat ground 47 Figure 17: Commentary on Paintings 52 Figure 18: Commentary on Paintings 53 Figure 19: Commentary on Paintings 54 Figure 20: Commentary on Paintings 55 6 Figure 21: Commentary on Painting 56 Figure 22: Commentary on Paintings 57 Figure 23: Commentary on Paintings 58 Figure 24: Commentary on Paintings 59 Figure 25: Commentary on Paintings 60 Figure 26: Commentary on Paintings 61 Figure 27: Commentary on Paintings 62 Figure 28: Paul Housley. The Roses in Blackpool (2005) 63 Figure 29: Mechanical Birds on a Branch view 1 70 Figure 30: Mechanical Birds on a Branch view 2 70 Figure 31: Mechanical Bird in a Cage view 1 70 Figure 32: Mechanical Bird in a Cage view 2 70 Figure 33: Duck Egg Cup view 1 70 Figure 34: Duck Egg Cup view 2 70 Figure 35: Plastic Parrot view 1 71 Figure 36: Plastic Parrot view 2 71 Figure 37: Votive Offerings at St. Roch Cemetery 72 Chapter 4 Figure 38: L with his Hedge Pig 77 Figure 39: Painting 1 78 Figure 40: Painting 2 79 Figure 41: Lisa Milroy: Personal Items. (1984) 80 Figure 42: The Consolation of Objects. Vitrine 28 82 7 Figure 43: 4213 Cigarette ends. Vitrine 68 86 Figure 44: Coffee Pot from Istanbul. 88 Chapter 5 Figure 45: My religious souvenirs 1. 90 Figure 46: My religious souvenirs 2. 91 Figure 47: Open shelf display of glass 94 Figure 48: Whitefriars Glass 96 Figure 49: A mixed display of glass on open shelves 97 Figure 50: The Narrative of Origins at the Gallery of Wonder. (2011) 103 Chapter 6 Figure 51: Examples of a Gallery Hang 1. 116 Figure 52: Examples of a Gallery Hang 2. 116 Chapter 7 Figure 53: New York Taxi 120 Figure 54: Made in China 1 120 Figure 55: Sydney Snow Globe 121 Figure 56: Made In China 2 121 Figure 57: Roman Centurion Pencil Sharpener 122 Figure 58: Made in China 3 123 8 Acknowledgements This study would not have been possible without the support and involvement of Claire and Oasis School of Human Development and those that I interviewed there. I would also like to thank Rick and Simon for agreeing to be interviewed and for being so open. I would like to say thank you to my friends and family, particularly Rosemary, and Simon for their knowledge, wisdom and encouragement, and to Clare for painstakingly proof reading my thesis. Thank you to my friends for their steadfast interest over, what must have felt like, a very long time. I would like to thank The Cherry Pickers for providing regular opportunities for me to sing my heart out. I would like to thank Northumbria University for giving me the chance to change direction in my life and to take it this far. Thank you to them, and to the AHRC, for funding my academic journey and for giving me the opportunity to assess the value of my souvenirs. I would like to thank my supervisory team. Helen Baker, who encouraged me to make films and guided my studio practice, Ysanne Holt who took over from Helen and who provided an appreciated critical eye, and to David Campbell who has seen me through the whole endeavour and who has been encouraging, supportive, perceptive and humorous throughout. For all their expertise and time and help, thank you very much. 9 Declaration. I declare that the work contained in this thesis has not been submitted for any other award and that it is all my own work. I also confirm that this work fully acknowledges opinions, ideas and contributions from the work of others. Any ethical clearance for the research presented in this thesis has been approved. Approval has been sought and granted by the School Ethics Committee on 11th July 2012. Penny Grennan Signature: Date: 10 Chapter 1. Introduction The aim of this PhD is to re-evaluate the souvenir both theoretically and through Fine Art Practice. I aim to reassess the value of souvenirs and to rehabilitate the souvenir as an object with distinct qualities acting as a window on the narrative of human relationships to others and self. I demonstrate that souvenirs evidence attitudes, fashions, cultural stereotyping, a human disposition to loss, longing, love, memory, memorial, conquest, attachment, narrative, context, and decoration in a way that no other category of objects do. I hope to contribute to the discourse surrounding Material Culture and our relationship with objects particularly through the framing of new terms to describe the unique qualities of souvenirs and our relationship with them. This will be achieved through: 1. Examining the nature of the souvenir in the context of theoretical writing and literature 2.