Gaga's antiques
As the first grandchild I had the privilege of naming her Gaga.
Her home is full of a lifetime of treasures, some collected during her travels and others passed down through the family. The all have fantastic stories associated with them, further embellished with each re-telling. Her things still bring back some of my very best childhood memories - a childhood spent in South Africa lost in my own world at the bottom of her garden, finding chameleons in the willows, gathering avocados, cowbells on the mantelpiece, the smell of moth balls in her blanket box, crows stealing her jewellery, learning to strike a match, crabs held captive in her vases, making rose petal perfume in old glass bottles with cork stoppers and hundreds and hundreds of pressed flowers.
She is the finest antique of them all.
In my artwork I explore themes of connection and the flow of life. A family is a living picture of exactly that. Antiques and heirlooms passed down by generations are a symbol of that connection and I enjoy sharing a love of collecting spoons with Gaga. She keeps passing them on to me (and I keep trying to refuse!) because she knows how much I adore them. Some she has had in her kitchen since I was tiny, others picked up along the way. My son now has his own strange and beautiful old cutlery, which we bought when trying to encourage him to use a fork! There is something very special about eating together and an everyday occasion is made even more beautiful with silverware.
Silverware with scratches and memories beaten into them.
