Objects of Social Memory

Objects of Social Memory capture moments of social conflict around issues such as abortion and LGBTQ rights through the traditional Polish folk art of Pająki. The objects emerge from an ethnographic design methodology in which Alina Słup attends, documents and analyses political events to identify gestures, symbols, colours and materials that are developed into a Pająki. Folklore has always been a tool to mediate tolerance and change, and before folklore became co-opted by nation-building, the Pająki represented the importance of personal creativity and difference in relation to collective values. Reclaiming this heritage through beautiful formalist objects is an invitation for conversation rather than polarisation.