What is legacy work?

I (KV) was in my motherland of Stoke-on-Trent recently. I stayed with my mum at my childhood home.

On my final morning, me and my mum started some informal but important legacy work.

Mum chose three of her favourite ceramic art pieces.

We photographed her holding the studio pottery, then sat down together to audio record the story of the piece.

Mum sat opposite me at the dining room table, holding the ceramic art and turning it over in her hands.

I began by asking her to describe the piece. Then she told me the story of where she bought it, why she was drawn to it, and the memories it evoked.

The process was tactile and unhurried and intimate, the stories reanimating the objects in new ways.

Bowl 1 (graphic iris) is from a San Francisco market in 1988.

Bowl 2 (abstract mountains) is from the Georgia O'Keeffe museum in New Mexico in 1995.

This lustre plate (abstract fields) is from the village of Valldemossa in Mallorca in the late 90s.

Mum is now thinking about which pieces to choose for our next recorded story-keeping conversation.

Have you done anything like this with your family?

What stories would you like to hear?

LOVEYOUBYE

#legacyproject
#legacywork
#deatheducation
#storykeeping