Today we had a guest speaker Frances Hansen who did a seminar on her current and past work. Her area of expertise is ranged from Painting to mixed media and does a lot of installation works too. One of the main ideas behind her works is collection. She uses collection in different ways from the weeds project where she got the collaboration of MSVA students/Staff and Newcastle Art school to produce a respond artwork towards weeds. She gathered them all then carefully position each drawing on a very large and wide panels that is all linked together and becomes a collection of artwork frames.
I don't really collect objects or have some sort of collection but photo albums is a some sort of collection that's associated with everyone. My mother used to collect stamps and put them into a catalogue. I remember going over to cousin house and saw how he uses his collection of toy soldiers. He decorated and displayed them throughout his home because the importance of that specific object to his childhood life. I did have a collection of marbles from my childhood life. They were really important to me because most kids in the islands love to play marbles and like collecting them to show off because it showed others that you are really good marble player.
Another artist who works with collection of stuff is British Artist/Designer Stuart Haygarth quoted "My work is more about giving overlooked things a fresh significance by putting them in a new context." Haygarth collects numerous objects, man made scraps and materials that are ignored and uses them in his artwork. Haygarth work "Tide" 2004 is an example of his collection habit which he created a colorful chandelier out of man made scraps he collected from the Kent coastline in England. The scraps are in different shapes and sizes but he some how organizes and places them carefully to create overall a sphere that he intently did as a resemblance to the Moon which results the tides that washes up fragments and scraps.
Thanks Faafeu,
ReplyDeleteThat Stewart Haygarth chandelier is pretty amazing.
I just heard on the radio a story about a little boy who thought that some coloured marbles were birds eggs. He brought them home and then wondered why they never hatched.
TX