About Face
Although the types of object found at car boot sales are heavily skewed towards toys and bric-a-brac, they nevertheless provide anyone interested in faces with an enormous and constantly changing resource. They give numerous clues as to how we define the face and how gender, emotions and many other issues are conveyed.
The main elements of the face form a language that spans the generations and crosses cultures and centuries. However, how faces are portrayed also highlights the many rapid changes which have occurred in our lifetimes and draws attention to ideas and fashions which have been dramatically influenced by the modern media of film, television and the internet.
The study of faces can pose as many questions as it provides answers and this is certainly one of the reasons for its fascination as an enduring subject for scrutiny.
This preview shows the first 15 pages. The full book comprises 60 pages.
Car Boot Sale
Car boot sales provide for a massive remixing of the material trappings of everyday life. They have become the hypermarkets of the new age of austerity. An unusual blend of a reluctance to throw things away, the chance of making a bob or two and the desire to recycle, has spawned a curious marriage between the householder only occasionally involved with sales, the hardened trader and possible sometimes an element of the local petty criminal fraternity.
For many, car boot sales provide a regular day out at minimal expense where children are welcome and the disabled have easy access. Bouncy castles, mobile caterers and toilets are present at all the larger events. Most purchases are under £5 and true bargains can always be had for the eagle-eyed.
In this mix of antiques, household junk, clothes and toys, visual treasures are to be seen on all sides. Many articles sell for pence or are traipsed from one sale to another, their context slightly different with every showing. Once-treasured possessions still emanate the zeitgeist of past decades and unplanned juxtapositions can allow the usually overlooked and mundane to achieve brief and curious significance.
Treasures of harder times, often in the subdued colours of the post-war decades are surrounded by a garish cornucopia of hedonistic toys often imbued with a startling degree of violence. Soft toys from the nursery are piled high, hinting at the modern superabundance of possessions which have replaced the much loved single teddy. Trinkets collected abroad appear to stare with bemused puzzlement at their unfamiliar companions. The gaze is everywhere important.
This seething stew pot of artlessly arranged objects generates ideas and memories and the occasionally strange pairings provide moments of epiphany and delight when connections can spread virus-like in the mind of an onlooker and feed the ever hungry inner eye.
