Artist-gatherer Vladimir Arkhipov suggests spending time in self-isolation with inspiration from handymen

I dream of creating a Museum of the Other Things.

And today I would like to offer you a new fantastic game: go I know not whither and fetch (show) I know not what (this is a task from Russian folk tales). What could it be? Our world requires continuous production of visual images. There are special people for their creation: artists, designers, architects. They somehow know where to go and what to find. But in fact, art comes from life, not life from art. You need to search not for the image of the image (as in postmodernism), but for the source. The source of creativity is life itself, and life is people, ordinary people. They are the authors of the most incredible forms and images, even if they never thought about it that way. As they did not seek to find unique forms, they do not discuss their masterpieces in social networks, are not proud of them, and are often even ashamed of them. I’m talking about other things – homemade household items. They are terrible and beautiful at the same time, they honestly and faithfully serve only the one who made them, they have no copies, they are things precisely, not goods. They are works of life and almost works of art. But they remain invisible until we find and show them to everyone. Let’s look for them together! We have time and networks. We also have apartments and houses in which we are locked today (garages, sheds, attics and basements) and where there may also be things that you once did for yourself – do not be shy, tell us about them! Tell us about homemade items that you saw somewhere (from neighbours, friends, relatives, on the Internet)! Perhaps because of self-isolation and a temporary limitation of opportunities, you just made some useful thing yourself or repaired something – tell us!

I bring to your attention stories and things that I have already found. I hope you appreciate them. I also hope that someday a Museum of the Other Things appears, where there is a place for each homemade thing.

Good luck with your search, my friends!

Here are a lot of Russian homemade things

Vladimir Arkhipov