what do you collect?
In an era where material objects are so easily disposed of, it is interesting, in comparison, to examine what is saved and collected. Collections tell us something about our arbitrary attachment of value to objects and, in turn, our habits and the rituals we indulge in, in order to create some sort of order or sense of organization in our lives.
My intrigue surrounding collections as art pieces and collecting as an inquisitive art form began as a child, growing up in a house that seemed to have an already established collection of everything my creativity could desire. My mother collected bowling balls, lamps, bits of neat paper, feathers, umbrellas, costumes, old maps, broken pieces of china, ribbon, scraps of leather and suede, and art supplies. My father collected shiny bits of metal, glass and wire, old machinery, musical instruments, kites, juggling equipment, didgeridoos, magnets, anvils, and LED lights. Collecting was a creative activity much encouraged by my parents, which led to my own compulsive collections of all sorts, many of which are still in boxes and jars tucked away, as I am unable to part with them. For me, collecting is a spiritual act of fulfillment. I generally save things that might be considered junk, rather than actively going out and collecting some particular object. The things that I save seem to represent some sort of potential and it’s easy to imagine what I could do with all of these things, whether or not I actually get around to it. There are still many questions about collections left to be answered: Why do people collect? What constitutes a collection – when is a grouping of objects considered a collection? and What do people collect? Are collections art or merely a form of display culture or documentation? These are all questions that will continue to interest me and that I will continue to investigate.
What do you collect?
I collect phone cards, at least I used to. I inherited a lot of them from my grandpa, which led me into collecting since I was small. However, for now the collecting hobby is put on hold. I still like to browse around for new phone cards, but I don’t swap/buy/sell anymore.
now that is a collection I hadn’t yet come across – how wonderfully bizarre and neat! I checked out the pictures, I never knew phone cards could be so interesting. I wonder why your grandfather collected them….
My grandpa collected them because phone cards were invented about 30 years ago (I’m not sure), and he just jumped on it.
There are many other bizzare collections out there. In one of the collecting network that I join (kolecta.com), I see people collecting smurf (little blue people) stuff.