In her new book Trading in Memories: Travels Through a Scavenger’s Favorite Places Barbara Hodgson takes us on an unforgettable trip around the world. From the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul to an ephemera show in Portland, Oregon we get a front row seat as Hodgson works her magic unearthing relics of material cultural. As the collector knows, the pursuit, in many cases, is as fulfilling as the acquisition.
The fruit of travel is in “collecting fragments of people’s material lives” says Hodgson in the introduction; in Naples it was tearing posters off the walls, in Portland it was a mugshot, in Fez El-Djedid is was an portable Arabic typewriter, in France she was on the the trail of Pierre Loti (the image above is of an authentic Japanese pagoda Loti had installed in his house).
Hodgson “believes that it is in the streets, bookstores, and markets where the city tantalizingly and coyly unveils its real past and most intimate self” and she places each journey within the perfect amount of historical context that you wish she would keep on going; one more stall, one more city. In a world increasingly bent on the disposable Hodgson proves that value remains in much of what we leave behind. Move over Madonna we have us a new Material Girl!
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An exhibit of Hodgson’s work, “Barbara Hodgson: Other Ways of Seeing Books“, runs through April at Wessel & Lieberman.
The exhibit features her recently released collaboration with Claudia Cohen The Temperamental Rose and Other Ways of Seeing Color which is undoubtedly one of the most beautifully executed fine press books of 2007.
For the exhibition, Hodgson has created a limited edition keepsake, “The Temperamental Rose: An Experiment with Light“. Each copy is hand-colored with a selection of lightfast and fugitive watercolors. It is designed to be exposed to the sun over a period of a year to demonstrate the effect of light on pigments.
Hodgson has also designed seven unique dust jackets for Trading Memories each containing material found during her journey.
There will be a reception for Barbara Hodgson at W&L this Thursday night from 6-8pm.
Trading In Memories website
Brief interview with Hodgson