By Ingrid Daniell
"As long as I can remember I have had a fascination with shells, beach holidays peppered with memories of combing for treasures. Looking for elusive cowrie shells was often the adventure. With childhood awe I would listen to tales of magnificent cowrie shells that were found by family friends… the longing to find these treasures burned deep, and yet they evaded my tiny hands.
I remember the old curiosity shop made from shells; it’s a place that lives in my memory, location lost to time, somewhere…trinkets and souvenirs, curiosities …. Idealized memories from colonial habits in the Anthropocene.
Every shell a perfect home, protected a life lived, washed ashore, sun bleached, resting, waiting to turn and turn and turn into sand, back to the earth, back to the ocean….Leaving shells for the earth.
I try to capture the shells, their weight & presence, trying to describe their awe, drawing on memory; marvel at these ocean jewels, like treasure, treasured in situ."
