Kija Lucas: The Museum of Sentimental Taxonomy
Desai|Matta Gallery
August 10, 2020-February 2021
Online gallery coming soon.
Read more about the exhibition: The Material Memory of the Museum of Sentimental Taxonomy
All of my work is about the ideas or things that are passed down through the generations, what we choose to hold onto and what we can let go of….Sometimes I think we don’t have a choice. -Kija Lucas
Kija Lucas’ Museum of Sentimental Taxonomy is a crowd-sourced, traveling archive of memory. The Museum bears witness to the tender and material evidence of our relationships and emotional experiences, often passed down and between family, biological and chosen.
From San Francisco to Pittsburgh, Tulsa to upstate New York, the Museum has popped up across the nation to invite community members to bring in their sentimental objects. The expected family heirlooms — old photographs, love letters, a set of antique turquoise rings — sit alongside many more unassuming — even surprising — objects of sentiment, including a desiccated European starling that has “followed” its owner around for decades, an ever-present memento mori of life’s fragility. A Star Trek phaser gun relic of a nerdy adolescence serves as a beacon “for all those little kids with huge glasses…waiting for a world to appreciate them.” A plastic grocery bag with Top Ramen and canned sausages, the last meal one participant shared with her grandfather is presented with an assemblage of other objects collected on the day of his funeral.
Decision or compulsion, there is no single reason we hold onto some objects over others. Some, Lucas finds, exist as conscious and intentional attachments. Jewelry, photos of loved ones, and stuffed animals are saved for the fond memories they represent. Others, more curiously, seem to attach themselves to the owner. These objects that “stick” to their owner might represent a challenging moment or a decision the keeper might wish they could unmake. Lucas describes an instance of a young student who had gone to Mexico City and taken a stone from a historical pyramid. Carrying that stone with them today is an expression of regret. “They told me, ‘I should never have done that. I feel like all of my bad luck in my life stems from taking this thing with me, but I’m still holding onto it and wishing to perhaps return it someday.’”
The objects in most collections we see in larger institutions and museums are carefully chosen by a curator, who shapes the form and purpose of the objects’ stories. The Museum of Sentimental Taxonomy is intrinsically and importantly democratic; in process and form it says everybody’s history and story is worth being told. For Lucas, the photographic process begins in a person’s home, where her participants consider the personal objects that surround them and then reflect on their attachments to them before they arrive in front of the camera lens. In a moment when those who can are spending more time than ever at home, considering the objects with which they surround themselves, the Museum has a particular resonance. It’s a living museum, not just because the index of objects and stories grows with time, but also for the charge and life these objects still contain. It’s a traveling poem, a wondrous and humble ode to our collective stories.
So, how does one make it into this project? We are exploring ways to extend the invitation to participate even while tending to the health of all our community members.
Please follow us on Facebook to learn about opportunities to bring your sentimental objects in to be photographed and become part of the Museum.