In the article Uri Aran refers to two pieces, which I will individually examine below and reflect in relation to my own table of collected objects. The article by Aran is “In its Place” (Frieze.com, 2019).
Objects on my Work-Table”
In 1976 George Perec published an essay discussing his thoughts on the objects he has on his writing desk. This written piece is called “Notes Concerning the Objects that are on my Work-table”. (Perec and Sturrock, 1999).
Perec starts by comparing the oldest and newest objects on his desk, the pen and the ashtray. He then progresses to giving us functional data relative to the desk; its size, shape, stability and its material composition. He then talks about his territory– “my desk” and delves into how objects are selected to be on the desk as opposed to places ‘away’ on a shelf or in a drawer. Some of the reasoning is functional. The pen and paper have to be to hand but other objects have a place but an infrequent or no function, i.e. an ashtray that is too small to use. Some objects are transient staying a few minutes whilst others, stay longer.
The desk gets periodically cleaned and cleared. At the end of each project the accumulated clutter is tidied away, the desk cleaned and objects replaced, with some disappearing to a hidden shelf or drawer but others being reverently replaced on the ‘tidied’ desk. This ritual which defines the end of one and prior to the start of another project may be a means to clear his mind of the previous ideas and thoughts of the now finished project to ready his mind (his desk) for the next.
In this hiatus before a new project it may be in part a prevarication putting off and delaying the commencement of the new project. In a way this ritual may be like the remedy to the ‘writers block’ or the ‘white page syndrome of artists’. Perec sees this tidying as an inertia but as he is busy this avoids the having to acknowledge this inertia to start anew on his ‘indecisive days’.
On his cleared desk the replaced objects can be the source of inspiration, provoking ideas and thoughts to kick-start his writing. His work surface is regarded as ‘virgo intacta’, with nothing out of place, the pencils sharpened and ready and the paper piled but still ‘blank’. Perec does not seem to have reached a conclusion as to whether the clutter on his desk act a stimulant for ideas or just indicate a cluttered mind where he must fumble and probe for his inspiration and ideas.
This blank desk allusion reminds him of the Managing Director with its minimalist surface indicating control, he probably feels this is a false allusion, especially in his case. Does Perec find this cleared desk and blank paper intimidating? Does his cleared desk give him the illusion of control?
Once into his writing process the desk accumulates the detritus of living and writing. The coffee cup temporarily belongs there but what purpose can the secateurs play? Some objects seem to permanently belong on his desk acting as comforters and touchstones to his process. These objects have an underlying physiological reason for being placed there whilst others appear as if by chance.
Perec’s desk has had several existences, moving house and being repurposed as a party table but always reappears as a work table. At its reappearance it the is dressed ritually in its objects which stay year after year will only little change or replacement. In the conclusion of the article Perec notes that objects become ‘inscribed in the project’ he is writing thus that project absorbs his history, preoccupations and experience and is a reflection of these at the point it emerges.
Everyone probably has their own work desk place; it may be their office shelf, bedside drawer or dressing-table; on this they accumulate the touchstones of their life. These touchstone objects are the familiar and the sentimental, the hoarded objects often with no purpose but ‘essential’ to living your life.
’12 0’clock news’
(1973, poem) by Elizabeth Bishop
This poem is from a collection of Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry – “The complete poems” (Bishop, 2006)
Bishop an American wrote this in 1973, at this time the Vietnam war was ascending to its climax. The rich resourceful land she landed in is contrasted starkly with the near dystopian land she portrays.
The points discussed in the poem are disparate and seemingly unrelated. These we see can the piece continues belong to a probably unfamiliar and partially unknown land. The information is presented to the listener in a list type format. The poem opens by setting the scene – it is a full moon, but visibility is poor. This lack of illumination is possibly allegorical to the knowledge of the true situation outside the isolated studio. The announcer is being feed the information by outside sources; she then relates this to the listener. Thus, the listener is receiving information at least third-hand. Is it still valid, has it been altered? Even striving for accuracy once there is an interface or exchange of data, in this case information the is inevitably a degrading of the information.
The news, any news bulletin is an edited and distorted view of the world we inhabit. Not every journey ended in a death, nor every beach visit in a drowning; listing only the highlights of big events. The minutiae of everyday life are missing as too trivial to be announced hence we only get the tragic, the extraordinary and the infamy. Trump claims much as ‘false news’ and he is nearly correct. The news in itself is true but the idea it gives of a world in trouble and strife is not wholly true.
Bishops poem announces strange and indigenous people, with simple unfounded beliefs and superstitions. A black object is unknown but it is expected that these people will possibly worship it or attribute it mystical powers. When spotted the indigenous person’s description is condescending and anthropologically described. She notes ‘our superior vantage point’ ; this is not just an allusion to their physical viewpoint by also the American superiority and their place at the forefront of advanced societies.
In this poem Bishop highlights, some of the attitudes of America and exposes them to the listener, highlighting the listeners shortcomings. The news announcer is only a conduit for the news and the attitudes behind the announced items not her own. To the listener the places and objects described are alien and unfamiliar. Only some Americans could accurately imagine the places and events described as they had served in the war theatre.
The language Bishop uses feeds the listeners prejudices; describing a dugout with the bodies of soldiers as a ‘nest’, alluding to a nest of vermin. Their inadequate camouflage highlights their unsuitability for war against a superior power.
Bishop uses these allusions and feeds the listeners prejudices to illustrate that despite their inadequacies and American superiority the listeners soldiers are losing this fight. When written in 1973 the losing climax to the war was only two years away but the writing was already on the wall and increasing casualties and devastating losses of soldiers and equipment plus returning service decrying the political decisions that had led to America losing a war for the first and only time. In America this is still viewed with shame and Bishop reflects and holds up to scrutiny the listeners beliefs and perceptions – their own beliefs and their perceptions of what is being related to them.
Each section and item of news is preceded by a word or two much like the title of the piece. These titles are not related to the news but list mundane objects found on a desk or office: ink-bottle, typewriter, envelopes, ashtray etc. These familiar objects only heighten the sense of dislocation to the listener. Using them as metaphors as to the image she paints in sound and language. The goose-neck lamp is the full moon – illuminating ‘half the world’; outside the pool of light the world is in darkness. The typed sheet with its rows and lines of text echoes the shapes of a rectangular field, the lines on it unknown but speculated to be an airstrip or cemetery. The ashtray is an allegorical allusion to dead bodies of soldiers which will be cremated and ‘disposed of!
When written there was much criticism of the Vietnam War but there was still a strong nationalist and fervent pride in the boys overseas, so Bishop has to cloak her language and metaphors carefully to only reveal what is being alluded to after careful thought. Was she worried that this might be seen as critical to Nixon government and it so its consequences?
Both Perec and Bishop show that objects can have both a literal meaning as well an underlying one. This second meaning can be metaphorical or allegorical. The object can have a highly individual and personal meaning to the person who owns it. The knotted piece of grass a love token from an innocent courtship or a scrap of waste and litter to someone else. The keeping of familiar objects around us is how we furnish our homes. Indeed, a bare room is termed as ‘not homely’ and a room populated by photos and mementoes is seen as ‘warm’.
My objects are a mix of mementoes, keepsakes and functional objects. The sun hat is veteran of many summers and is not a dark as portrayed in the photo, the reality is a faded and battered hat-piece but one which I can’t imagine not having. The compass is a decorative, functional touch-piece. After a life of engineering I am drawn to the shiny manufactured precise functionality of the brass case and steadiness of it always indicating north.
Many of the other objects are objects found whilst beach scavenging. The empty decorative shells keepsakes and representative of many beaches found, walked and explored. The speckled rock a reminder of a trip around Ireland and this rock from a particular rocky shore in the far north west when we heard the singing of whales as they traversed offshore.
The driftwood one of many picked off the cobbled rocky shore near Aberaeron in Wales. One that one end with an operation in Aberystwyth hospital to repair my leg after a nasty fall. The pens and brushes in the pencil pot are those used in the many drawings and sketches done on our travels. The map was used, abused and is now ready to be discarded but can be now repurposed as a container and allegorical reference to our vehicle. The candle alludes to the metaphorical light burnt by our family as they await our return to them. It also represents the light cast by knowledge and discovery: the places, people and things found on our travels.
As individual things they don’t say much to an observer but as a collection they hint at the journeys taken and the objects and places found. In themselves most are effectively worthless (apart from the prescription sunglasses) but I have taken the time, effort and resources to collect them, and in some cases relocate them from a different country.
If I was to start this exercise again, would I select the same objects; I’m sure there would be a few that make the cut a second time around, and that is possible a physiological discussion I need to have with myself, and if I talk to myself then AI will need to have a psychiatric talk with myself.
The rationale and meanings plus the selection of my object table items is discussed at the commencement of 2-1-1.
How does reading these pieces help you to think about your table and collection? Is your collection suggestive of a particular type of landscape or narrative?
The objects are reminiscent of a cityscape with the rectangular woven map container indicative of a tower block, the brushes and pens in a pot indicative of a church and steeple and the hat draped driftwood another colossus of a building. The scattered items in the foreground could be presentative of street furniture or parked cars.
The striped table runner could indicate the streets and lanes of a city.Another interpretation of these items could be a storm lashed landscape with objects and things toppled over and flung about. The hat caught on a branch as it spun and whirled in the stormy sky. The shells dashed onto a strand and scattered about dislocated from their origins.
Bibliography
Bishop, E. (2006). The complete poems. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Frieze.com. (2019). In its Place. [online] Available at: https://frieze.com/article/its-place [Accessed 28 Mar. 2019].
Perec, G. and Sturrock, J. (1999). Species of spaces and other pieces. London: Penguin, pp.144 – 147.
List of illustrations
Fig. 2-1-2-1, Drawing Art Sketch, (n.d.) London Cityscape, [online]. At: https://drawingartlic.us/img/ 8258795/euregiophoto-london-cityscape-poster-posterlounge-poster-london-cityscape.asp (Accessed 4 April ’19)
Fig. 2-1-2-2, Schaeffer, M; (2016). Storm Tossed driftwood, [online]. At: https://www.mendonomasightings.com/2016/02/08/after-a-storm-head-for-the-beachll (Accessed 4 April ’19)
ET Painting 2 - Studio Practice 
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