Failure is Built In

Weakness
This series of modified flatware entitled, Weakness, transfers the frailty of human existence into the familiar shapes of knife, fork, spoon. Craft is not the showcase but the sleight of hand that reveals our ambivalent relationship with objects. We display our personality and taste through the language of objects; what might they say about us over time? Slight shifts in the configurations of these familiar forms suggest the complexities of the human psyche and the human form.

Precious
The process of making Weakness began with found silverware rather than raw material. Starting with objects that carry intrinsic personal, aesthetic, and economic value is a challenge of its own. A spoon engraved with a name (Eloise) and a date (1916) refers to a specific life. One may surmise that Eloise selected the flatware pattern herself (perhaps a wedding gift). She made a specific aesthetic choice (as have I), one that she lived with day by day, or perhaps for special occasions only. The objects held value for her once, of that I am sure. The fact that these pieces of silverware were purchased by me in the year 2002 based upon crude weight and the spot price of silver suggests that they no longer carried personal value to anyone in particular, having been traded for pure material value some time ago. But, the cargo of sentimental reference to a life passed imparts the objects with the preciousness of the individual human life. All modifications I made to the flatware were performed with this in mind. It is out of this respect that, to the best of my skill, I retained where found, engraving, dates, tarnish, and the marks of use/misuse (scratches, dents, nicks, etc.). These are the evidence of lives once lived. Nevertheless, my creative choice to modify the utensils demanded a simultaneous destruction of the integrity of the original objects.

Rebecca Scheer, 2002