“She smiles affectionately when she thinks about being a young girl, and that little music box with its discreet presence in her bedroom, a place where many secrets were shared. The brightness of the pearls from afar, and their sound when they were laid down on the velvet red lining as well as the classical tune that always played are just some of the memories that bring her back to the special person to whom that little treasure chest belonged.”
That music box never stopped having a presence in the life of the person who chose it as their Object of Connection. During our phone call she told me how this important person and this little object was the thread of their relationship during a formative period of life. She shared the feelings she had and recalled a few details that still moved her.
There were many elements, each with its own facets and nuances, and no detail was left out. I was able to create and object that contained the full emotional experience, Dolores, her object of Identity Craft. A trunk that resembled a music box, the inside of which inside could reproduce and display her interior life.
Dolores makes me feel secure when my eyes fix on the comfortable light green of her upholstery. It brings me back to sunny afternoons where the light filtered in through the balcony on the 6th floor and I felt safe, in the arms of my grandmother. It takes me back to the romantic and welcoming aesthetic of the 60s, the music sung and listened to in that room.
— Claudia
It’s important for me to be able to hold on to those feelings, that connection to a physical place I cannot return to. It reminds me who I am and what I am made of.
Working with Fatima in the telling, the research and the anecdotes of the object was a balm for the pain of a deep loss. Still today, as time goes by, Dolores manages to reveal hidden parts of me.