apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

One of the best exhibits I ever saw was about a year and a half ago, at an old candy factory-turned-art-space in Harlem, called "The Social History of Objects. The participants, both artists and non-artists, were each asked to contribute an ordinary object, one that they didn't use for its original purpose, but kept anyway ... and write about how the object came into their lives and why it was significant. The range of objects (and accompanying stories on text labels) was alternately touching and laugh-out-loud funny: two nuts from a Harlem pastor that been carried around as a charm by his grandfather; a baseball cap from a manipulative boss that the owner gave to the show on condition that it not be returned. I don't think any of them were "valuable," but all resonated with life and meaning ... and as a "stuff person," I just completely "got it"!