Relic 02

Relics is an ongoing project, asking people to share items of personal significance - the things they have accumulated through their lives that remind them of a person, a place, a philosophy or a feeling. The things you take with you, that you could never willingly part with.

Rosie Brown

Below is a transcript of the audio above. This audio has been edited for brevity - mostly to remove me quietly asking questions in the background.

Hello, my name is Rosie. I live in Geelong with Jed-Dog. 

So it's (her Relic is) a mixed media piece, which was one of my grandmother's. 

So my grandma was like one of my beasties. 

She lived in Wellington, which is where I was born. And then we moved back to Whanganui, my home hometown. But I used to go and stay with Grandma, like all the time, and she was an absolute - she was a textile conservator for the New Zealand Museum Te Papa.

So her whole life was all about collecting and like, what's the word? Like, free... she would, like bring things back to life and like, fix things. 

But she also, as a result of that, was quite a hoarder and so had like heaps and heaps and heaps of stuff like all over her house. 

And so that piece of art was one of my favorites.

I would stay in her guest room or, like, it was called Rosie's Room, and it was always it was like out just outside the door. So I'd wake up and I'd see it and they'd go to bed and I'd see it. 

And like, Grandma had thousands of beautiful pieces in the house that was always like one of my favorite ones.

And she would, whenever we'd go over for like years, she'd be like, put a sticker on the things that you want for when I die, which is always a bit savage. 

But like, yeah, that was one of the first things that I stickered. And when, you know, we went through all of her stuff after she passed away, there was so much stuff that we'd stickered that I was like, "Why the heck did I choose to sticker that?"

But that one was one that I always knew I wanted. 

Jesse: So what's it of - is it like a beach scene, or is it more just like the textures? 

Rosie: I think it's up for interpretation.

I look at it as like cliff faces. Like that's what I looks like for me because it's got the kind of like two sections. 

And the artist is like a New Zealand artist and there's lots of those kind of cliff faces in New Zealand. Like if you look right across like the coast is always like it's quite rugged terrain, especially on the west coast.

So for me it looks like cliff faces, but it's just made of like paper, which is pretty cool. 

My mum's an artist as well and mum does a lot of like mixed media textile art as well. So it's definitely like runs in the family, that kind of creative pace. 

Jesse: Did you find out about the artist before or after you got the piece?

Rosie: This is really bad, but like, I don't really - like artists. It's more about the art to me than the artist. 

And like some, I think my grandma would always know like exactly who someone was and, you know, how long they've been doing art for. 

And my mom and my aunty the same. But for me it's like more just about like the beauty of it.

So like even just then, like I've heard the name before, but it wasn't until I actually lifted off the wall that I realized that it was Rose. 

Jesse: That's cool! And you'd find a piece you connect with. So, so it's less about the person who made it and just about... I suppose.. 

Rosie: Sorry, all artists [laughs]

Jesse: What I imagine is, like, that emotional connection of like whatever you go to the place, seeing it through the door.

Rosie: Yeah. Yeah. So and now it's in the exact same line of sight. So when I wake up in the morning here, I look out the door and I can see it like that was quite important to me. 

I was like, it kind of takes me back to sleeping over at my grandma's house, which is quite a nice feeling to have.

It definitely like reminds me of New Zealand. So the piece for me feels both personal and the connection to my grandma, but also just in the connection to New Zealand and where I lived in Whangarei, my hometown had quite a rugged shoreline, so lots of cliff faces which you almost I can also connect to like the Great Ocean Road, because like living down this way, there's also that kind of terrain.

So it just feels like it feels like home, that piece of art, which is really nice.

I think the if I didn't have that piece of art, I'd be okay because I still have the connection to my grandmother. So I think for me, like I'm not attached to things. And I think it's funny because my family are like my grandma was super attached to things. 

My mum's like quite the same, but if I lost it, I'd be upset, but I wouldn't like it would be okay because I still have like those memories and I've always - there’s many things in my grandma's house that I can picture that I don't have, but it's still kind of like that memory's there. 

Jesse: Yeah, I suppose it's like a representation for those other things as well. 

Rosie: Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. 

Jesse: Well, thank you very much. 

Rosie: You're welcome, sir.