Episode 4: Childhood by RUYA MAPS

This episode takes a different turn in its approach to heartbreak, rather than look at romantic or political loss it explores nostalgia for a lost time. Our earliest experiences of heartbreak can be traced to childhood, a period that we cannot return to.

In the episode we explore a psychologists perspective on the necessary heartbreak that comes from the separating out of self as we leave childhood, and its accompanying rites of passage. We also look at the material culture associated with childhood from a curator’s viewpoint, specifically historic objects that convey the heartbreak of parents who cannot raise their own children and are separated from them. Finally, we take in an architect’s perspective on how a series of dolls' houses are being used to overcome these degrees of separation and make space for individuals within communities.

The episode is largely inspired by the works of the artists Fusun Onur and Farah Khelil. Fusun Onur’s pieces explore the fragility of the domestic sphere through: mixed media embroidered frames, a sculpture that incorporates a music box’s spinning mechanism and even her own childhood dolls house. Farah Khelil also plays on nostalgia, many of her works repurpose materials such as tourist souvenir postcards of her hometown Carthage. The transitory nature of childhood finds an echo in the city’s own transitions.

In this episode I am joined by a range of experts, the psychotherapist Dr Owen Madden, curator at The Foundling Museum Kathleen Palmer and the architect and instigator behind The Giant Dolls House project Catja de Haas.