26 Treasures and Beyond - online exhibition

“How would you choose?” I ask myself. “From thousands of objects, how could you possibly choose which one to write about?”

I was grateful that I didn’t have to choose, that my treasure was allocated to me. I didn’t have to go and seek it out. However, phrasing it like that, ‘seek it out’, I think that this perhaps was one of the fun elements of the ‘26 Treasures And Beyond’ project. We were limited to 26 writers who could take part in the exhibition at the V&A, but there was so much interest in the project that the ‘And Beyond’ project was born, with writers finding their own treasures from the V&A collection to write about – in 62 words, of course.

And so they sought and found. From speaking to a few of the writers, it seemed not to be so much a choice but a moment of recognition that united them with their object. Scrolling through the V&A online catalogue, their eyes alit upon an object that connected with them. It could be a classic black vase, connected to the writer simply by its aesthetic. It could be a treasure that sparked a personal recollection. It could even be an object they too owned.

I have heard writers sometimes say, indeed I have heard myself say, ‘I don’t have anything to write about’. This project proves beyond doubt, as if proof were needed, that that doesn’t wash as an excuse.

Growing up, I had a poster on my wall of a voluptuous, red Georgia O’Keefe poppy. On the poster was a quote from Georgia – “Nobody sees a flower really, it is so small. We haven’t time and to see takes time – like to have a friend takes time”. There is more in the world than we could possibly write about in a lifetime, but where we fall down is that we don’t take the time to see.

So next time you are in search of inspiration, have a flick through the V&A catalogue. And either you will find an object that connects with you, just like that, or choose an object at random, and take the time to play with it, research it, turn it over in your mind, to see what it turns up for you.

In the book, “Finite and Infinite Games”, James P. Carse writes, “Creativity is a continuity that engenders itself in others….art is not art, therefore, except as it leads to an engendering creativity in its beholders… Art is dramatic, opening always forward, beginning something that cannot be finished”.

A thousand beginnings are yours to be had, and art is a good starting point. We will be starting to publish the ‘And Beyond’ project entries on Wednesday, 18 August, one a day until the start of the London Design Festival on Saturday 18 September. Follow this treasure trail each day and be inspired.

- Olivia Sprinkel