The mundane

Sue Michael, Enfield Horticulutral Society Autumn Fair, 2008, digital photograph — Sue Michael, *Enfield Horticulutral Society Autumn Fair,* 2008, digital photograph

I have a bias towards documenting the mundane, for we all too often have not paid attention to such aspects of place, or may not have even perceived some aspects that they ‘carry’. This gives the mundane the potential to be very lively and surprising. A more academic , taxonomical study is possible, but they can remain clinical, whereas chance encounters and wanderings may distinguish important aspects of everyday life, for those attuned to their importance.

The local aesthetics may also be struggling to find its place in the wider cultural landscape, the display of home made rugs and example of such tiers of cultural information. Perhaps these local crafts may be oblivious of their own protocols, their aesthetic strengths and points of contrast to the wider world.

Sue Michael, Good Luck Charm for the Home, 2019, digital photograph — Sue Michael, *Good Luck Charm for the Home,* 2019, digital photograph

A farmer’s wife from a small town collects the horseshoes that rise to the surface during ploughing. She adds these decorations and sells them in the local community centre. The horseshoes are then potentially messengers of that place, and perhaps will travel far away. When looking at overlooked aspects of place I must ask myself if everything or anything included in my groupings. Are the objects or architecture I am documenting contributing to a more meaning full engagement with that place, that can potentially be clearly understood by a new audience? The covering of horseshoes may require a pattern, and these are skills I do not hold. In the 1970’s ladies would carefully cut plastic bread bags into long strips from which they would croquet kitchen foil covered, wooden coat-hangers. It was a way to recycle materials that was in a long tradition of thrift, economy and innovation in early Australian settlement. Have I given appreciation of this cultural meaning in my representations, or only mocked a somewhat unfashionable object, despite it carrying the kind intentions of its maker.

There are numerous hobbies that have annual gatherings throughout the year in my state; horticultural, stone wall making, model railway builders, doll house and hand sewing are examples of pursuits that engage people passionately, sometimes over many decades. These clubs are examples of what may be considered mundane by some, bey also areas of expertise and mastery by others. Amongst these hobbyists, they have often made a special place for their interest, in a specially prepared and cared for area of their home. This could be a considerable study of its own how people care for their interests at home.

The road below was handmade. Pieces are missing. but the care that was given to such a simple toy remains. It speaks of activities that are counter to the ordered and sequenced model making from a preprepared box, with a well nuanced yet ‘tame’ design. This beguiling design speaks of the lived experience that was imbued upon the vessel during its making. It is not underdeveloped. It engages the aural, olfactory and haptic sense upon its viewing, for we can imagine an actual sea-going vessel.

There is the saying that one can look , but can not see, and this may tie in with Goethe’s way of seeing,

Sue Michael, Model boat toy, 2019, digital photograph — Sue Michael, *Model boat toy,* 2019, digital photograph

When looking there can be fresh tracings, new connection , and way to orientate you to that place in those’mundane’ objects. They may be the catalyst for reinvigorated thinking, allowing you to make new reconnections…like picking up a knitting stitch, and point to a sort of ideological closure. The reassessment of mundane object may create new, surprising, metaphorical ‘torch lights’ along your path.

Quintessences may be situated; not all physical sources and processes may be visible. We can learn to look past materialism. Our experience can be loaded with things so taken for granted that the meanings within that local placemaking are not even apparent. How do these objects belong to a place, and how would their fit ( or not belong) in another place? What do people not know? This last question circles so many of the art works I make.