Souvenirs

While I'm on the subject of things that interest me, I'll take a moment to mention souvenirs. I am/have been very interested in souvenirs as a class of objects for a while now. I like them because they are objects of significance, and nothing else. They are not useful, nor were they ever intended to be. They are only meant to recall a past experience, a lost experience that cannot be repeated. Souvenirs are generally some of the least authentically made objects that are meant to authenticate life's experiences: they provide physical proof that something happened, or you did something, and amassing a collection of souvenirs means you've done a lot of things. I like the contradiction that something more or less materially worthless, like a cheap souvenir spoon, can be very emotionally valuable.

But I did not buy the spoons pictured here to mark an anniversary, or my trips to Texas. I bought these spoons as part of a collection of 28 other souvenir spoons on Ebay. I don't know if they were accumulated by one person, or thrown together by their seller, and other than for reference material (which is why I bought them), I can't think of why anyone would buy someone else's collection of crappy spoons. But presumably they do. And I have kept them long after I needed the reference.

Periodically I look at these spoons as they hang on a wall in my studio and wonder what, if anything, they mean now.