Maria - The Pen

Maria Kinas
NATIONALITY: Australian
ETHNICITY: Cypriot, Egyptian, North African.
OBJECT: The Pen

I selected the pen for my object because it symbolises something that is invaluable to me. It is a fundamental object that does not reside directly on my body (with the exception of it being used), yet is intimate to me on perhaps a higher stratum than a ring or a necklace in some senses.

Its power is exhuded not from what it is, or even what it contains or does as a tangible product, but is made irrevocably precious to me by what it allows. It allows for an expression of the 'other self' - the self that neither you nor i can see or acknowledge with our worldly senses.

The beauty of a pen, in my eyes, is that it is a humble and unassuming object, that appears to be merely functional, but its language is far more intricate and involved than it appears to be.

It is an object that exists to give a voice to my thoughts, to the workings of my mind, so that once i have parted from this earth, my pen has left something of myself to the world and to the worlds to come, so that i might not be forgotten, and so that i might contribute some fragment of myself to a people i will never know or see - and so, the pen to me, is an object that allows for me to endure, and for that act, it is irreplaceable and indisposable.

M Y 3 W O R D S:
Enduring
(because it is a cherished object - when it is used it and i form a shared history, which in turn encourages an attachment to it)

Empowering
(because it affords a means of communication, reflection and self expression)

Universality
(because there is something engrained within the language of a pen that makes it a universally understood object. I am the child of 3 ethnic histories, and was born in a country which made my exist as a 'half cast' very pleasant. The pen signifies this melding of diversity in some way, because its language is unwavering regardless of the race, religion, gender, persuasion or geographical location of the person holding it - it fundamentaly, is still a pen, and it exists neutrally, without offense and without political loading, and as such, it is harmoneous and therefore universal.