Man brooch: the tool reduced to decoration
20/07/2015
I had an idea, while wondering about ways of signalling both individuality and attitude.
Brooches have a functional fastening, gender-neutral origin, going back to the stone age, and were quite popular in Roman times, to the point that upper-class Romans wore "Barbarian" designs to be trendy, until they were absorbed into general Roman culture. They were then back-borrowed by Roman-influenced Barbarians! In modern times they are generally thought of as a feminine adornment, but I had the idea of using masculine objects, reduced in size. They are then doubly ambiguous, a man wearing a feminine adornment made of a masculine object, formerly useful, made useless by size, a macho object used in a non-macho way. A nice conceptual depth, I thought. I have made a quick image at left, and below are a few other possibilities, available for a few dollars as keychain ornaments. |