Description
Jo’s Friend’s Dead Mum’s Stuff, Brooch by Regina Krawets
Materials: Repurposed costume jewellery, vintage paper, sterling silver, stainless steel
Year: 2024
Exhibited: Remade-Reloved 2024
Artist Statement:
Usually the bags of jewels we are ‘gifted’ to rework are completely random in style, material, era and provenance. This year I was lucky enough to receive a collection of jewels that had had a single owner. It was labeled “Jo’s friend’s dead mum’s stuff”. Included was a note bearing the inscription: “To Dear Shirley! with Love & best wishes Jcke. 14.4.56”.
More than a collection of outdated and unwanted clip-on costume jewellery and faded, hand lettered felicitations cherished for close to 70 years – these were miniature repositories of memories, experiences, laughter and sorrow.
The artifacts in the ziploc baggie invoked in me Milan Kundera’s version of nostalgia: “an unappeasable yearning to return”. Memories of my grandmother, her quilted housecoat, faded rose-clad bedroom wallpaper, earlobe dragging weights firmly clipped onto aging ears, post floral scented spritz of eau de cologne. For a moment I was back there.