H E L L A S
My being half-Greek reveals itself most tellingly in things collected or fetishised, as if ‘stuff’ I’m able to reference tangibly – ‘stuff’ to do with Greece, somehow – either represents or acts as a replacement for the sort of deep, highly patriotic connection I’m supposed to have.
The collection includes, amongst other things:
a) Novelty books to do with Alexander the Great or other historical, predominantly ‘heroic’ figures. Totally inspiring.
b) Other books to do with ‘real-life’ accounts of Greek life, normally from the perspective of a non-Greek (Sofka Zinovieff’s generally-poor-but-sometimes-nostalgically-illuminating ‘Eurydice Street’ is an example).
c) Unwanted holiday ‘gifts’, wide-ranging in form (miniature churches in white and blue, miniature fishing boats in white and blue, minitature parthenons, etc.) that seem commonly available at markets in London, suggesting that the craft involved in their production isn’t of a standard worthy of display but is “better than the bin”.
d) Food packaging that seems to be ‘authentic Greek’, in some way.
