BOYS WALL DECORATIONS

This is a stoneware pot found in the Philippines in the 1900's. The creator and the location of creation is unknown to me. The surface appears ruff, and remained undecorated. The top is broken, and may or may not have been more ornate, though judging from the rest of the pot, I would assume the top to have been only functional, not decorative, perhaps lending itself to a lid of some kind. The pot is wrapped in a weaving of some sort appearing to aid in carrying the pot, which does not seem to have had any handles. The walls of the pot appear thicker than other, decorative pots that I have seem from the same region, this could be because it was produced in a different location, or by a different artist, or because it was intended for a use other than decoration. I find the latter to be the most likely possibility.

All the characteristics of this pot lead me to believe that it was a strictly functional object, perhaps one that was used during the working hours and then stored out of sight at the end of the day. This poses an interesting point on the relationship between the usefulness of objects and how they represent a culture. The work that a certain society performs, as well as the tools that they use to perform this work are obviously large defining parts of a society. However, objects that a people in a society treasures and use to decorate living space and beautify their environment also play a large role in describing that culture. As would seem natural, the differences in objects used for work and those used for decoration can be quite a large one, making it difficult to discern how the true image of a certain culture should be portrayed.

Because of these discrepancies, I believe the distinction between cultural evidence pertaining to work and evidence pertaining to entertainment and aesthetic values is an important distinction to make. For instance, the plastic trash cans that many people in the U.S. have stored under their desk by no means indicate any aesthetic values that we may hold as a culture. They do however, indicate the state in which we prefer to keep our work environment. The existence of several of these plastic trash cans may serve to indicate that we, as a society, have made an effort to organize our waste into certain categories and distribute it accordingly. This of course is our effort to recycle, and demonstrates our value of the environment, however large or small it may be. These plastic trash cans construed in the wrong way, as art, could be seen as indications that we value plain colors and mass produced identical art pieces. This of course would not be an accurate representation of our societal values today, at east the way that I see them.

In this manner, I believe the distinction of the social role of an object within a certain society to be pertinent information before discerning the values of that society through observation of the object.

A handmade natural jute macrame hanging basket with reclaimed, vintage red wood beads and black triangle hanger.

A custom made black metal triangle hanger at the top, followed by Chinese crown knots and 6 arms of twisting sinnets.

The 12 vintage red wood beads were reclaimed from an old macrame wall hanging.

39" from the tip of the triangle to the bottom of the plant with a 10" fluffy tail.

Shown with 8" wood bowl, ideally fits any 8-12" planter.