BP 5/6

Title: The Necklace

Date: Unknown

Artist: Unknown

Origin: Mexico

Function: Accessory

The item I have chosen for this blog post is a accessory I found in a flea market know as "El Chopo" in Mexico City, DF. I am not positive about the origin of this necklace or what the artwork represents but it appears to be a Aztec, Mayan or Olmec design of some kind. I purchased it purely because it was aesthetically pleasing to me and I felt that it would be a great token of my trip to Mexico a few years ago. I wore this necklace everyday for almost a year and while I was traveling the world playing concerts it traveled with me, so it has quite a lot of sentimental value to me, despite it's monetary value being little to nothing, I believe I only paid about 20 pesos ($2) for this particular necklace. It snapped in half while I was playing with it around my neck when I was in Europe but I've held onto it still.

In John Cotton Dana's Gloom of the Museum, he writes that the people who decide what goes in a museum are the wealthy elite who can afford to buy expensive works of art and display them for the public to see. Dana believes that this one sided view of art from the wealthy elite, leads to the lack of diversity of objects displayed in a museum, he writes that the aristocracy "have always felt of acquiring ancient, rare and costly objects, that the possession of them may mark them superior to the poor and weak." The piece of artwork I have chosen is the exact opposite of what Dana sees as the problem in the art displayed in museums by the wealthy. The monetary value of this necklace is next to nothing, but the detail is spectacular and it's design is beautiful. This necklace is an homage to an ancient culture and style of art. It is an object that is commonly found throughout Mexico today but something that may not be represented in a museum.