Someone Will Remember Us
The oldest text in Yours Truly is also the shortest. Suzi Zutic chose Sappho, fragment 147, written in the sixth century BCE and surviving as three lines.
"someone will remember us / I say / even in another time"
We do not know who she was writing to, beyond a circle of followers and associates, and we do not have the rest of it. What we have is the claim itself, which turned out to be correct.
Her response is an 18ct gold ring, set with an old cut or cushion rose cut diamond she has had on hand, in the form of a classic engagement ring. A reference to fragment 147 is engraved on the inside, to remind the wearer of Sappho's message.
Written over two and a half millennia ago, in Suzi's words, Sappho's promise of being remembered finds a quiet place in this ring, honouring those who came before as it travels gently into the hands of those yet to come.
It is a neat piece of thinking. The fragment is about being remembered by people who will never meet you, and an engagement ring is the one object most often made to be passed on. The engraving is not the quotation, it is a set of directions to it, left for somebody in another time.
Yours Truly is a group exhibition of rings by fourteen of our artists, each one made in response to a letter. 12 to 28 November 2026, at 28 Russell Place, Melbourne.
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For nearly forty years Emily Dickinson sent letters across a garden to the woman next door. Kim Victoria has made three rings from them.
Rilke described love as two solitudes protecting one another. Djurdjica Kesic has made rings that can be stacked or worn alone, and are complete either way.
