Ruri Watanabe

RURI WATANABE University of the Arts London London College of Fashion BA (Hons) Fashion Design Technology: Womenswear 2014

‘Cathexis’

Creating my collection as a KEEPSAKE.

“Memorials are often thoughtfully chosen and lovingly maintained, reflecting the cultural heritage, status and values of the deceased and his or her surviving family members”(Hockey, J, 2001:218). Having own particular memories on their possessions made the object not just as object.

It becomes one’s own personal ‘Cathexis’. “Cathexis is a form of emotional investment transferred into an object to form a link between a person and the outside world, so that a simple object like a mug or a sweater becomes a mediator and is experienced as a reinforcement to the sense of self ”(Attifield, J, 2000:130) Memories are evoked through a myriad of signs, closely connected to the particular person, and others related together more tenuously.

Attifield, J. 2000 Wild Things:The Material Culture of Everyday Life, New York, Berg Hockey, J. 2001 Grief, Mourning And Death Ritual, Open University Press: New York

Inherited items are powerfully and resonantly maintained by the inheritor, and its effects while distributing their possessions after loosing the giver, It is one example of the way in which objects mediate emotions, relationships and identities.

(Attifield, J. 2000).

Attifield, J. 2000 Wild Things:The Material Culture of Everyday Life, New York, Berg

indigo blue

sumi glay

Concerning about one’s lifestyle allowed us to find very core of self-identity (Bell, D. 2005).

Bell, D. 2005 Ordinary Lifestyles: popular Media, Consumption and Taste, Open University Press: New York

Bereavement is not only between human but also object and its owner. Loosing the owner means those object lose the original meaning and having a new meaning not just as object.

Memories are just as powerful, and will never be erased from my mind.