things not worth keeping   2000 Touring and internet

TNWK, part of the Millenium Collection, was conceived and edited by cris cheek and Kirsten Lavers. Just before Christmas 1999, 1000 people received an invitation to nominate a thing of their own that they considered to be 'not worth keeping' and to suggest why this might be the case. Then several things happened. A hundred things were selected [mine was one] and exhibited at Dartington College of Arts. They then toured to car boot sales in a London taxi, went into a skip outside the Platform Gallery in London and those not claimed were taken to a landfill site. Meanwhile photographs of the things and their commentaries were produced as a catalogue and posted on the website.

"Threadbare cotton apron ... dk bluewith buff, yellow and red markings; unusual design of garment suggests constructed out of fabric left over from another project, possibly soft furnishing; hand and machine sewnprobably between 1950 and 1965; repeatedly mended and patched; new button and buttonhole circa 1988. Acquired at an auction in Cambridge in 1969 - included in 'dressing up box' belonging to a long established nursery school which was closing down. Assiduously used first by children for games of make believe and later for about 20 years as a work apron by a potter, many times discarded and resuscitated.

I keep forgetting [the reason for not keeping] {Worn out. Exhausted. Tried beyond endurance. Represents a culture of handsewing, mending and recycling at an end. I need a new fetish}

I do miss the apron - I have turned the photograph of it into a fetish until my new apron is made- collecting fragments for it now."