The everyday

Throughout this research, I have extended an interest in the ten- sion between the ‘everyday’, ubiquitous, useful architectural rail that we almost do not see but use all the time, and the refined, precious exhibited craft object that we rarely use but we now ‘see’ in a heightened way, and on which we might carefully pause to

enable the focused viewing of its aesthetic detail.

In Being and time, (1996) Heidegger considers the everyday tool, observing that everyday usage of things determines a particular type of knowledge. Heidegger suggests that as long as things remain in use, they remain undiscovered because, being intent on using them, we filter our awareness of their other qualities. But when lifted out of their common situation, we notice them and the aspects of detail we previously took for granted.

This is important for my research because I am shifting the archi- tectural rail out of its usual context, and shifting the context of the exhibited craft object, in order to draw out potentials of both, in creating new craft objects. The everyday is also central to my work in several ways. As discussed previously, I am interested in the use- fulness of objects and in shifts that have occurred in the making and understanding of usefulness and objecthood for craft objects. I am also interested in concepts associated with inhabitation and domesticity. All of these rely on the idea of the everyday. Ultimately, through this research I have considered the everyday as a trigger for ideas developed in my work and as an impetus for usefulness in my work. This has also enabled the bridging of architectural rail and craft object to address my research questions about the relationship of craft object to the exhibition space and the viewer’s experience of both. I have used the domestic setting – the home – where func- tional, prosaic, daily life is intimately intermingled with meaningful, emotional and symbolic interactions and experiences. In this con- text, the development of the series of rail works and of ideas about sequence and journey has involved the making of specific works in response to specific scenarios associated with homecoming. The work Domestic rail (2014) investigates junctions between archi- tecture and the craft object. Relevant aspects of this relationship are materiality and tactility. Much of how we experience architecture is shaped by our experience of materiality and our intuitive, emotional responses to materials. These relationships are strongly influenced by sensory experience or embodied knowledge developed through- out life. Even the mundane act of opening a door has the potential to be evocative:

The everyday act of pressing a door handle and opening into a light-washed room can become profound when experienced through sensitized consciousness. To see, to feel these physical- ities is to become the subject of the senses.100

While architecture and the craft object differ in many ways, there are potentially questions relevant to both: How will people experience this work or space? Are connections and details approached in a considered way? How do the materials respond to location? What do they offer to human experience and to daily life?

These ideas are played out in a specific rail work I developed for a Jewish household, titled Mezuzah and rail, Figure 24 (2007).

A mezuzah is a container that houses the Hebrew verses of the Torah, often placed on the entrance/doorpost of the home. The flex- ibility of Judaism is particularly relevant in how it reflects, responds to and celebrates contemporary life with all its variations. It is the connectedness and inclusive nature of Judaism in relation to the everyday that I responded to in the work.

Beginning with the mezuzah on the outside of the home, the rail passes through the front door frame and connects the outside of the home to the inside. The wall mounted rail supports a range of accessories that hang and clip to the rail which determine and potentially challenge the way we define the object, from religious object (mezuzah and scull cap) to art object or perhaps something very useful (phone and keys):

The unique message of the mezuzah is that in addition to having the word of God inscribed in your heart and mind, and written in the volumes of your library, you should also place it on the entrance of your residence to emphasize that your home and everything that enters through its doors, are imbued with a spirit of divinity.101

In making this work, I considered that it would be useful to explore the idea of connectedness and the potency of the everyday object for highly meaningful ritual by running the rail through the home. The concept was for a series of mezuzahs made for and mounted on door frames throughout the home (excluding those for bathrooms and kitchens) and connected by a rail. The interior mezuzahs could become more ‘open’, as protection from the weather and security issues would no longer need to be considered.

The relationship with the everyday, combined with a deep tradition, meaning and ritual, inspired me to think about other possible work that balanced usefulness and meaningfulness as being equally rich in their embodiment in the craft object, in the domestic setting. The trigger and central concept for these aspects of usefulness and meaningfulness is the experience of the object by a purposeful and sentient subject-viewer-user. As the mezuzah was tied to tradition and religion, and to a ritual of homecoming, this triggered the de- velopment of concepts and works that might address alternative or more abstract iterations of entering and leaving a home.

Mezuzah and rail (2007) within this research project triggered a series of key shifts and developments, leading to the later domestic rail works discussed in this exegesis.