THE BOTTLE OF MATCHES

My day at Mirth has included familiar faces, warm embraces and most importantly, food for thought. A friend who is visiting from California stopped by the shop for an afternoon berry spritzer. He was immediately attracted to an apothecary bottle full of matches designed by Jen Pearson.

He inquired, "What is this?"

I replied, "An old medicine bottle full of matches. You can strike the matches on the bottom of the bottle...to help with your fire-starting."

He corrected (in the most charming manner), "You should never describe these objects with verbs. When a customer asks what something is, simply tell them what it is. For instance, the object you called a doorstop is a heavy rock. You can do all sorts of things with a heavy rock."

Walking outside to photograph this little bottle of matches, a friendly Hotel Paisano guest engaged me in a conversation about the iPad camera. We agreed that the convenient piece of technology took nice photos and then he offered to hold the match bottle for me. I told him that I wanted to frame the object against the sky. 

The picture did not turn out as I imagined; there are trees popping over a horizon of rooftops and car parts. Nevertheless, we only took one. I like the idea that this stranger played a role in the composition of the photo above, a photo I intended to take alone. My friend is right...interpretations wilt with force and become more interesting given over to happenstance. 

This contemplation of objects, space and interpretation leads me back to Donald Judd's sentiments on specific objects and contemporary art's move from 2d to 3d space--actual space--which Judd believed to be more specific and therefore poignant. Perhaps my friend was unknowingly explicating a principle Judd stood for. We each come to an object with a unique potion of experience, life, knowledge and creativity. From now on, I will let the objects speak for themselves. 

-Jessica for Mirth