The art of letting go: creating dispossession paths toward an unextended self

Abstract

This paper describes a collaborative art/research project that afforded individuals who have difficulty letting go of objects the opportunity to give up meaningful possessions so that objects could take on new meanings, immortalized in the art form, such as photographic exhibitions, sculptures, and collages. Written stories accompanying the donation of these objects revealed these objects' strong attachments to self. Findings reveal that the psychological and emotional dispossession of objects was aided by two interrelated sub-processes: (1) reconciling alienable/inalienable properties of possessions through disposition practices and (2) negotiating self-identity incongruities in relation to material possession attachments. Art became a catalyst for a positive dispossession experience, which in turn promoted consumer's goals toward an unextended self. Instead of becoming de-constituted, alienable rubbish, or re-commoditized objects in material markets, these possessions were reconstituted by undergoing a meaning transformation that elevated their cultural status in the material system.

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