• A PEOPLE’S PECULIAR

• (2011)

Heritage • Stories • Symbols • Charms

A People's Peculiar is a collection of symbols, objects, artefacts and stories gathered and created during the making of On Landguard Point - a mass public research project exploring ideas of home, and the East of England's major contribution to the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

Inspired by the heritage and culture of the East, Robert and the team at Pacitti Company worked with thousands of people across Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

Together they created a feature film, staged a series of site-specific events, and collected stories, memories and local knowledge from residents and visitors across the region.

From this research emerged 205 symbols of home, all illustrated by Joe Naylor and inspired by the East's flora and fauna, myth and legend, history and geography, everyday life and popular culture. In the film On Landguard Point, the symbols appeared as bright yellow emblems on black flags raised at performance ceremonies around the eastern coastline, flying a new visual lexicon for the region.

Each of the 205 symbols was also transformed into six identical sets of silver charms by jeweller Victoria Johnson, painstakingly using sheet metal and silver clay. Every charm tells its own story and carries an 'OLP' tag linking it to the project and inspiration behind its design.

One full set of charms formed the heart of A People's Peculiar, a permanent exhibition created for Abbot's Hall at the Museum of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket, Suffolk. Each silver charm was displayed alongside a corresponding object from the museum's own collection, revealing unexpected connections between contemporary stories and the region's material heritage.

Pacitti Company members Richard Eton, Sheila Ghelani and Robert Pacitti wrote the accompanying entries, while visitors added thousands of their own memories and stories of home through interactive touchscreens.

As part of the accompanying Dig and Sow project, an identical set of the 205 silver charms was buried one piece at a time in domestic gardens and on common ground across the region during staged archaeological digs. These remain hidden today, to perhaps be discovered accidentally by future generations - or maybe not.

Bringing together contemporary folklore, museum heritage and thousands of public contributions, A People's Peculiar blurred the boundaries between artwork, museum collection and living archive. Newly created symbols and silver charms sat alongside historic objects, while residents and visitors alike were invited to add their own stories, ensuring the story of East Anglia continues to be written.