Abstract
Although not written as museum or material culture studies book Nina Simone’s Gum by Warren Ellis highlights the concept of biography of objects which explores how the meanings of an object change over time. This work follows the multiple interpretations of a piece of gum chewed by Nina Simone (b. 21 February 1933 d. 21 April 2003), an American singer, songwriter, and civil rights activist from its collection at a concert in London in 1999 to its placement in a museum exhibition at the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen in 2021. Throughout this work the author records his feelings towards the object, the feelings of others when they encounter the object, while also noting how the gum and other objects obtain and shift meanings. He writes, “Nina Simone’s gum was something else. . . Its reach was seemingly bigger. I sensed this growing around the gum. This tiny object with a bigger story, gathering like a tornado” (95). This book would be of strong interest to museum professionals and academics who focus on the research and interpretation of objects and collections.
Primarily this work tells the story of this piece of gum and the changing meanings associated with it. Ellis, a musician who is a member of The Dirty Three, the Bad Seeds, and a frequent collaborator with Nick Cave, recounts his awe of Nina Simone. He meticulously describes one of her concerts (and the events surrounding the concert part of a festival for which Nick Cave served as director) he attended in July 1999 at the Royal Albert Hall in London which he, and others, labeled a religious experience (28, 42, 47). He recounts the circumstances of how he acquired this object noting that it serves as a souvenir from this event. He details that after the introduction Nick Cave gave her, and immediately prior to her performance, he watched her wrap a piece of gum she chewed in a towel and place this towel on the piano she played. He states that after the concert he went on stage and took the towel along with this piece of gum. He then packed away this piece of gum, and the towel it was stuck to, in a Tower Records bag and placed the bag in a briefcase which toured with him for a while. Next this bag containing the towel and the gum moved between various locations in his home, including a shrine to musical inspirations that Ellis built in his home studio in 2005. In 2007, he moved the bag to a chest of drawers where it stayed until 2019. In 2019, this object underwent another series of symbolic transformations after Ellis was contacted by Nick Cave to include it among objects in an upcoming exhibition titled Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Exhibition. After they decided upon this object’s inclusion in the exhibition Ellis commissioned both digital and hard copies of the gum and the stories attached to this object changed again.
Nina Simone’s Gum not only documents this piece of gum, but also highlights other objects from Ellis’s life and how their meanings changed over time. This includes a description of a marble given to him in 1999 by the Greek New Wave musician and author Arletta (Αρλέτα) after meeting her for the first time and how he keeps it with him when he tours. Ellis also details his attachment to, and the changing meanings of, a violin he used while touring which he thought he had lost for two decades. Furthermore, Ellis notes the contents of cases and boxes, which he describes as “time capsules” that he kept over the years, and his memories associated with some of these objects. Additionally, Ellis illustrates his relationship with the music of Beethoven through objects noting that he owns two busts of Beethoven as well as concluding this book with a description of his visit to Beethoven’s grave.
Through the gum’s journey, and its changing meanings over time, Ellis underscores the central argument of the book which is found also in the exhibition label accompanying the gum: objects carry meanings and significance associated with their origin, but also shaped by the viewer (165). In addition to including this object in the shrine mentioned above, Ellis shows his veneration for this piece of gum as he compares it to the jar holding the final breath of Thomas Edison, since in both cases, the objects remained sealed and untouched since their collection (30). He notes how this piece of gum underscores the relationships people develop with objects and how these relationships change over time.
One drawback, which may deter some readers, is the structure and narrative style of this work. Although there are chapter breaks which divide the thirty-four chapters, and each chapter provides a mini narrative, there is not a table of contents or index in this work and there is not always a clear structure which tie the chapters together. Additionally, while Ellis mostly tells the story of this piece of gum chronologically, the work shifts focus from the piece of gum, to autobiographical sections, to sections describing other objects Ellis kept as well as correspondence from others to Ellis discussing the gum.
Overall, although this is not a book focused on museum or material culture studies, it could be useful to museum professionals, academics, and students who study material culture. Ellis deftly describes the reverence that people attach to objects and the multiple meanings and changes in interpretation of the titular piece of gum. Furthermore, through nearly one hundred photographs as well as multiple lists and descriptions focusing on objects he kept, including the piece of gum, Ellis does a great job of detailing the connections people make with objects and how these meanings change over time. Through the inclusion of this piece of gum in a traveling exhibition, this work offers thoughtful reflections on both the objects individuals choose to keep and that museums choose to display.
