Lanyard Project Resumé of my work

The Lanyard - if you have to wear it wear it well

Taking my primary research about my own identity (principally my origins) as a starting point, it was obvious that the project would have to show strong contrasts. My family tree shows that my own identity is divided between my mother’s British nationality and my father’s French nationality, my double cultural upbringing and my bilingualism (French, English). This identity is further divided on my father’s side: his father was Alsatian (Alsace had been annexed by Germany at that time) and his mother was Italian. Although a double culture can be seen as an advantage, it also means that I have no single cultural identity, and I feel like an outsider in both France and England.

I then looked at my own tastes which identify me as a person. I have a very strong, interest in two areas: Art brut and Vodou culture. These are completely outside my own culture. Art brut is a non-intellectual art, “non-standard” and spontaneous. It was called “Outsider Art by Roger Cardinal in 1972. Vodou art has very little to do with black magic. Vodou is a spiritual system. It also has a lot to do with identity. It is an outsider culture, too, because the Catholic church made it go underground. The Vodou culture believes in the visible world that people live in, and the invisible world where their dead relatives live. These ancestors watch over their relatives in the visible world and inspire them in daily life. The Vodou fetishes are in fact symbols of protection.

I decided to make a lanyard in two separate but overlapping parts: my family and my interests. It would go around the body to protect it. I originally planned for the lanyard to go around the head and the heart since the head is where all our thoughts and memories are stored, and the heart is where are our emotions are stored, but also if our heart stops beating we die. However, I finally decided to concentrate on the heart and make a bag with a strap going around the shoulder. It looks similar to a cross-over neckline top (“cache-cœur” which translates as “heart cover”) with two protective pockets in order to keep objects/possessions representing my life that represent me close to the body. The idea of collection was important.

The “bourgeois” part representing my origins features photographs of my family (the dead ones watching over like the Vodou spirits (in the context) and traditional Alsatian half-timber houses printed on used tea-bags. I liked the sepia effect that the tea created naturally. I also created patterns of my own (as I have a strong interest in print), using old echographies of before I was born, and printed them onto teabags as well. The visible and the invisible were represented. Teabags were also a humorous reference to my English side. These were sewn onto a piece of organza in a muted mauve/grey colour. I thought that this looked quite sophisticated and French. It also made a good background for the prints: the colours work well together. The identity card is printed on a teabag and is placed on the shoulder. It is almost like a brooch, instead of looking like a cheap plastic identity card, and blends in with its surroundings.

On the other side, I knitted with chunky needles using string. I liked the idea of weaving, because it is like the idea of the Three Fates weaving people’s destiny. I wanted an unrefined look (reference to “Art brut”) and something where I could attach possessions (I had looked at “cabinets de curiosité” in my research, and I liked the idea of collections). I modelled my own “fetishes” out of clay and decorated them with materials such as stones and old screws. Some of the fetishes I made were in fact too heavy to put on to the lanyard (for example, the stork which is the symbol of Alsace).

Over time, the string will biodegrade so will the teabags, and the clay will crumble, leaving the stones and the screws. I liked the idea of contrasting “permanence” and “transience”, like life itself. On the other side of the lanyard, the teabags will disintegrate, but the organdie will remain. This introduces the notion of the object over time, that I saw when I researched Christo’s wrapping in the first term of FAD.

I think I have made a very personal lanyard for myself. I would rather wear this than a traditional lanyard cord. It goes on the body and holds an identity card. It is individual, but it makes me part of three groups: my family and cultural heritage, my interests, and part of Central Saint Martins through the identity card.

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