Is there a specific quality that gives an object unspoken value? Many of the objects chosen for this series suggest a permanence that eludes us in today’s dollar store culture. The disposable nature of the cheaply made household items that surround us now lack the quality, endurance and mechanical design of these built-to-last relics of yesterday. These objects struggle with their own obsolescence. Their durability and design has ensured their physical presence will outlast their relevance. Although, in some cases, they are still relevant, and completely functional, yet they have been cast aside for the sake of convenience.
Unspoken value celebrates these objects, and their roles in the lives of those who possess them. They shape our identities and mark defining moments in our lives, and in turn, we attach memories to them, treat them with reverence, and even pass them down from one generation to the next. For myself, these items may hold no monetary worth, but they elicit a melancholic memory of a place or a person irrevocably gone from my life, and for this their intrinsic value is deeply treasured.