Initially I did not believe that I collected anything or that I had a collection, however I realised that stuck on my walls were cards from my mum that each had a significant quote or set of words which were sentimental that she has sent to me during my time at university. Immediately this opened the question of what a collection is and what does it take for something to become a collection? My set of cards is a collection to me because it is a set of objects that my mum has sent me and I keep. Feeling slightly embarrassed as I showed my ‘soppy’ cards to the rest of the group, it made me realise that everyone had such different collections from a personal childhood collections or many of the same object. It answered my question that a collection is not objective, it is subjective, what may appear to be a collection to one person it could possibly be nothing to another person without a description or explanation.
In the Usher gallery, all the objects were belongings of James Usher. The description and explanation of these objects opened up to the public what the purpose of the collection was. Kaye stated in Mike Pearson’s book his characterisation of site specific art was ‘Articulate exchanges between the work of art and the places in which its meanings are defined.’ (Pearson, p.8) The object or collection of objects at first look appears meaningless and fragmented, however the description of the objects gives a brief explanation, the site and surroundings of this object and of the objects and paintings surrounding add depth and a story starts to develop.
The curator puts together a collection, and are responsible for the collection. A museum and gallery is trusted by the public and the word of the gallery is taken for granted and is not questioned. However the curator is the one who puts together the collections, behind every single object is a significant reason why that object has been placed there and why it has been placed next to something else. With my collection as a curator, the way that I presented my collection of cards made a completely different meaning and had a totally different story behind it. The curator holds a lot of responsibility for the story that is being told and the way the public receive the object. Mike Pearson quoted from Ibid; ‘First its locations can work…to evoke specific past times related to the place and time.’ (Pearson, p.11). The location of something can trigger a memory that may have otherwise been forgotten, for instance, when exploring gallery 3 I was reminded of a family member’s pocket watch and how precious it was to him and in the cabinet was over 20 different pocket watches which all had their own story to tell.
Being the curator of my collection, I changed the meaning of the collection. By seeing the obvious written quotes showed a direct meaning to the collection. Whereas if I turned the cards so the inside of the card was on show, the meaning and message behind the cards became a much more personal one.
Works Cited
Pearson, Mike (2010) Site-Specific Performance, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillian