Last Saturday saw the launch of the FONDS project which tells the stories of the objects people hold dear, from a sticking plaster to a glass fish, a box of spells to a perfume bottle, the exhibition will be on a Tramway until the end of March.

By Jack Howse | Photos by Iain McLellan

Last Saturday (3 February) the upstairs of Tramway arts centre was transformed into the host for the opening party of the FONDS exhibition, which will be open to the public in the space for the next two months.

The packed out crowd included many local Govanhill residents, participants in the project as well as the FONDS core production team of Sam Gonçalves, Morwenna Kearsley and Flora Zajicek who made the film, photos and podcast respectively.

The exhibition consists of big prints of the nine objects that make up the podcast – including a Tweety Pie tie, kohl bottle and handmade pillow – with accompanying QR codes for attendees to listen to the podcast.

The film on the making of FONDS plays on repeat at the entrance wall with a grid of 45 postcards showing all the objects photographed for this project on the opposite side.

Read more about the project here.

During the launch party, two of the podcast episodes – which its producer Flora describes as “intimate short portraits of people through the objects they love” – were played to crowd with the lights dimmed.

Eva and her Tweety Pie tie and Arij and her perfume bottle were the two episodes played. Afterwards, both gave a short speech about what creating the podcast and seeing their image in the gallery space meant to them.

“It just reminds me of so many memories, so thank you Morwenna” said Eva, who talked about how her tie evoked hard school day memories and her LGBTQ identity, “In Govanhill we are so powerful together” she added.

Arij shared with the room how the perfume bottle reminded her of her mum and her life in Syria: “Everybody has an object, don’t ever leave that object if it makes you happy. I always love my mum but having that object that reminds you of them makes it better,” she told a rapt audience.

“This was my favourite part of the day” said Morwenna, “I loved listening with everyone, when the lights were dimmed.. I want people to feel curious about the object, who it belongs to… and also the making of the photographs and the making of the work”

Both Arij and Eva’s objects were seemingly everyday objects but they mean so much to their keepers. “Even though an object might be ubiquitous… often everyone attributes them to a certain person that they are separated from for some reason,” said Morwenna.

We have some exciting plans for the space over the next couple of months and hope to invite different community groups into it to share the objects and the stories that matter to them. Get in touch if you’d like to arrange something with a group you are part of by emailing newsroom@greatergovanhill.com

If you would like to check out the exhibition, you can head upstairs in Tramway 11-5 Wednesday-Sunday until 28 March to see Morwenna’s images and Sam’s film. Be sure to listen to the accompanying podcast which reveals the stories behind the objects. Just search for FONDS on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.