Passage
Exploring the items that pass hands between women throughout the generations in the hope of imparting security, independence, and freedom.
Time
Flora
A crumple of old newspaper was all Flora saw of her family's heirlooms when they passed hands under the cover of whispers from her grandmother to her mother. When her father saw the objects, he was shocked, "You could go to jail for having these."
Flora and her family were visiting her grandmother in China for her grandfather's funeral, and on a long car ride later in the trip, she asked her parents about what she'd seen. The hidden objects, small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, that represented so much danger. She was told that the newspaper concealed currency from from before the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which began in
1966. The story of the coins was the story of her family and their role in an immense historical shift.
"A long time ago, on my mother's side, they were a relatively well off family," she said "But when the Cultural Revolution took place, a lot of that money had to be turned in." Her family, like many others that had wealth prior to the Revolution, attempted to hide money from the government, and their plans to redistribute it. The government knew this was happening, "So they would go in and raid homes in the middle of the night," recounted Flora "and that happened to my family." Her ancestors had very little warning. "In a panic, my great, great, great, grandmother threw the coins into the pond in our backyard in the hopes that the government officials wouldn’t find them." However, as her father told her, the moon was bright that night, and it shone down on the coins, illuminating them under the water's surface. The officials saw. They arrested her great, great, great grandfather. He died by suicide in jail, unable to cope with the harsh conditions of his imprisonment. "In the end, they were able to keep these coins, and pass them down from generation to generation."
The coins, much like Flora's family, never returned to normal. They haven't been functional currency since before the Chinese Communist Party took control, replacing the silver yuans with the renminbi, issued by the People's Bank of China. Despite their lack of purchasing power, Flora understands why the coins are still in her family. "I think for my grandmother, it was clinging onto a past life, clinging onto some kind of hope."
For Flora, the coins are still shrouded in mystery. She hasn't seen them since they passed from her grandmother to her mother, and she doesn't know where they're kept. Even asking for a photo of them felt unsafe, as her am her mother communicate on the Chinese social platform WeChat, which they feel is monitored by government surveillance. "You have to assume that everything you're saying is being read," she explained.
Flora doesn't even remember exactly what they look like, but she said "I'll never forget this story, and I'll tell it to my children. These things that you learn about in history, they can feel super far away. When you hear that your family had to live through that and there's a physical piece of it attached to your family, it just makes it feel so much closer to you."
Love
Alejandra
Alejandra wears her mother's first engagement ring almost everyday. Her parents got married when they were nineteen years old. They didn't have much and the simple band was all her father could afford to give her mother at the time. Years later, after establishing their life together, he gave her a new ring. The original was passed hand to hand to all the women in her family, from Alejandra's mother, to her eldest sister, her middle sister, and finally to her.
For each of the daughters, the ring has carried the story of their parents' love, and has reminded them of the love they want to accept in their own life. According to their mother, "[The ring] means love, unity, and eternity. Eternity because each one of us has been able to use it.”
Strength
Sara
"My sister and I are very close, but we were estranged for twelve years when I was in a relationship with him." Sara and her sister reunited through the fearsome looking ring she wears on her left hand. It spans across three fingers, spiked with three jagged black crystals. She refers to the ring as her "brass knuckles." A gift from her sister after Sara escaped the abusive marriage that had separated them. "The marriage was a complete sham, and there was a long history of abuse, and all the things we are told to look out for and avoid as women, but we get stuck and we can't get out." Sara comes from a family of strong women. "I was raised by my grandmother, and my aunts, and mom - women everywhere." They raised her to be brave.
Over the course of her marriage, her bravery and expression was stifled. She'd stopped wearing jewelry altogether when she was married, even though she loved it.
"Entering into this relationship that I couldn't get out of, I'd lost that strength I was so proud of. I became very submissive and the complete opposite of everything I was raised to be." Her sister recognized that for her, jewelry was an expression of power, and when she bought her the the ring she told her "Now no one's going to fuck back with you."
The ring represents Sara's recovery "I spent a year fighting back, and regaining the identity I lost, but not just regaining, building her back up and becoming the woman my grandmother raised me to be, the woman that the women in my family supported me to be, and the ring became that."
She's already passing down her strength to the next generation of women in her family, starting with her niece. When referring to her plans for her brass knuckles she said, I don't know if this ring will stand the rest of time. If it does, I would want her to have it. She's eight, very much a tomboy, and I wear it around her all the time. She said to me once 'Dora, this ring hurts' and I said, 'It's not supposed to hurt, but it is supposed to remind you that no one can mess with you, baby girl.'
Security
Dana
"I was married to an idiot," began Dana. "He didn't work for seven years and there was a point where I had to sell my jewelry to feed my kids." Dana raised her three kids as a single mother. She worked as a real estate agent to provide for her children in a wealthy neighborhood in Alabama. "The real estate market went to hell in a handbag in 2008.
The only way for her to make ends meet was by selling her jewelry. It started with smaller items, "I knew the big ticket item would be my wedding ring." She sold the ring and later parted with a diamond tennis bracelet given to her at the birth of her youngest son. "Anger," the first emotion that rolled from her tongue. "Embarrassment. To drive to downtown Birmingham, talk to a jeweler, ad say 'I need to sell this.' I mean, that's embarrassing"
There were two pieces that she didn't part with. Two rings, given to her by her mother and father on her middle school and high school graduations. She had begged for both of them. "One was just a little diamond ring. I'd asked my mom 'If I get all A's and B's would you get it for me?"
"The other ring, I told my Dad, why would you get me a class ring when you can spend four times as much to buy me a ring with diamonds and sapphires?" She recreated her love for these pieces in a custom graduation ring for her only daughter. When asked if her daughter had inherited her sentimentality for the milestone jewelry she said, "Cleary not, I'm wearing it now."
Dana doesn't have any regret about the pieces she gave up."They served the need.
Regrets don't do us much good."