Thursday 10 December 2009

dreaming



So, this one was yesterday...
I do not remember how did I got there, but I was in a space without a clear background, maybe no background, just a grayish mood tone.
It was a kind of family reunion, my godfather, godmother, my aunt Fina, my granny, my mom, my cousin.. I can just remember the adult figures but my other cousins and brother should have been around too. We were going to have lunch and so we were involved in some small conversation, catching up... The relationship with my family is cordial but we keep to ourselves, we do not know each other.
. . .So I was chatting to my aunt, half sincerely about my life in London, focusing on my work with functional ceramics, how hard it is to find my market and to feel appreciated by a public too used to stream lined products made in a factory line fashion.. so far I was controlling the conversation... then she stops me, and asks for my attention. From the back of her chair she grabs a lace wrapped pile of boxes, looking like presents. She says,... look! I got presents for all of us, they are ceramic bowls, I got them from the pound shop, just one pound each, they even wrapped them for me....Is it not great, have a look, I am sure you would like them, as you like ceramics, they come from China...
After this I went from incredulity to gradually becoming very upset starting a discourse on how they were helping to my misery and the China potters misery by buying those items from the pound shop...How much do you think the potter or factory worker has been payed... I was screaming now... the cost of transport, the many intermediaries/dealers getting a slice of the final price.... how can I compete with those prices, it is not fair... are you stupid?...
By now I was the focus of attention, I had disrupted the peaceful fake of our family reunion. Granny was looking at me with dismissive eyes, like...you have done it again..
To my surprise all of them started to produce boxes/ presents, they were all wrapped and looked the same, they were all coming from the one pound shop. Apologetically they said they were actually thinking on me and my love for ceramics when they bought them...
What?... even my mum...

No comments: