I am fascinated by the relationship between objects and memory – the manner in which objects gain specific meaning based on personal experiences and how that meaning may or may not align with broader cultural semiotical interpretations.
I was confronted with “race” in second grade. My class was about to begin learning to waltz with a partner. The teacher divided us into two lines, one for boys and one for girls, according to height. She began to explain and demonstrate the steps when she suddenly stopped and took a boy out of line to exchange with the boy across from me. She could barely look at us as she said “I think the two of you make a nice couple for dancing.” We were the only two people of color in the school. Tchaikovsky’s, Swan Lake, Op. 20. is inextricably tied to that moment for me. That piece of music is the “object” that I associate with the first time I was made aware of (my) race. My association is incongruous with the lilting quality of the piece.
If you are so inclined, I would love to receive a similar object from you-to make into an assemblage/Cornell box. However, please be aware that, not only are you gifting me the object permanently,  I might alter it in surprising ways and will definitely place it in contexts/positions which relate to issues of colonial conquest and institutional structures. What you share about the object will help inform my understanding of the object and your relationship to it. However, my interpretation will nonetheless drive the final form and concept. What ever I may make with the object, I will share visually with you.
The “object”: choose something that you associate with the first time you were made aware of your own race/ethnicity/culture. This can be a a physical object, a piece of music, a text, anything at all. Also share in textual form why you associate this object with this question. That can be any length from a single word to an essay.

 

If you choose to participate in this way, I will send you my mailing address (I’m in Shanghai). After I receiving your object,  I will reach out to you to ask if would like to talk about your object or the topic in general.
Many thanks!
Monika
msl14@nyu.edu