You know those old trinkets and pieces of useless junk you keep squashed away in your bedside table top drawer? The ones that hold no practical use whatsoever, but you can’t bear parting with because of their perceived sentimental value? Well, Australian music legend Nick Cave wants it all for his new online museum, The Museum of Important Shit.
Hoarders, rejoice, for this is your day of recognition. Composed of user-submitted photos with accompanying explanations, the museum has been launched in conjunction with Cave’s warped semi-fictional documentary, 20,000 Days on Earth.
Cave hopes to curate a “collection of ordinary items with extraordinary significance” and is accepting submissions of sentimental keepsakes now. They will be judged by Cave himself, as well as 20,000 filmmakers Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. Various creative types will also have a go at curating over the coming weeks, including Richard Ayode (of The IT Crowd).
“These physical things that define particular periods of my life, hold great importance to me,” explains Cave of the project. “That stuff can unexpectedly reduce you to tears, because unexpected memory has that capacity. We all do it, I suppose, collect stuff, we all have our totems and touchstones that anchor us to our past. Stupid shit, in a way, but important shit.”
The idea of museum was conceived during the filming of 20,000 Days on Earth, reports Wired, when it was revealed that Cave’s Bad Seeds bandmate Warren Ellis had kept a wad of Nina Simone‘s used chewing gum.
“It’s a pathetic looking dirty piece of gum, wrapped in a white towel,” Pollard told the publication. “It’s shit, but it’s important shit. And that’s what this project is all about.” You can find an image of that famous piece of refuge on the site, along with a cigarette butt that once belonged to Tom Waits.
At time of publication, there seems to be issues accessing the official Museum Of Shit website — presumably because it’s just crammed full of all your rubbish — but you can follow all the latest developments on its Twitter page. Nick Cave will head out on an Australian solo tour this November and December. See all the details here.
Watch: 20,000 Days on Earth – Official Trailer
Nina Simone’s Chewing Gum (via Wired)
