Welcome to the fair rag and bone shop of the heart

Announcing a new project, in which a sentimental cynic sifts through the rituals and relics of ‘romance’. The term (safely nested between inverted commas), might at first make us cringe, sneer or feel slightly queasy; and yet there is still a small place reserved in all our hearts for this ideal. Why? In a culture founded on cynicism and self-interest, without faith, political will or cohesive values, some foolish things - songs, films, books, poems, objects and experiences - still manage to beguile us. Still slip through the firewalls of our unbelief.

It is precisely because we are in the gutter that we need the stars. But what stars? What makes them still shine? And how do we know a real star from a Sarowoski bling bauble?

I propose to strip away the neon vulgarity and greetings card clichés to find an authentic, vital heart beating still. To identify, anatomise and preserve these romantic fragments against the ruins of our times....