On Longing

- On Longing -

"The body is the primary mode of perceiving scale"

          The body is almost always in proportion and within the same range of height regardless of its owner. Thus, the body is the most useful way to understand the size of an object.

"The souvenir exists as a sample of the now distant experience, an experience which the object can only evoke and resonate."

          Viewing a souvenir, such as a D.C. Metro card used to travel throughout a summer internship, can only bring to mind the experience once had. It simply cannot bring to mind anything other than the past adventure that is now a memory.

"The souvenir reduces the public, the monumental, and the three dimensional, into the miniature that which can be enveloped into the body."

          Souvenirs represent an event or place so immense, so monumental, into something small and tangible so that it can be held and treasured, like this feather from a historical museum.

"Nostalgia cannot be sustained without loss."

          Memories that evoke nostalgia are ones that bring a certain amount of sadness. Something must be lost to feel nostalgia: whether is be a person or the idea of childhood.

"To have a souvenir of the exotic is to possess both a specimen and a trophy."

          To have something as simple as a pressed flower from Hawaii is much more important than one might think. A flower, for example, is (or once was) a living, breathing being that you can hold. It also becomes a beloved possession for whoever collects the specimen.