when i was a kid, i collected stamps for a while (correspondence was a more common thing in those days, and my grandmother would give me some lovely stamps sent from poland, canada and czechoslovakia). one of my favourites was an illustration of cinderella.as well as stamps, i had a desultory coin collection, and an active swap-card collection from the ages of 8-11. incredibly there was a swap-card shop near my school, so i could stop in on the way home.
but i never had a passion for collecting, or never collecting one "type" or "category" of thing.
like these wonderful cigarette cards, on the abc's collectors show&tell page,
like these wonderful cigarette cards, on the abc's collectors show&tell page,
The cards are from series of 50 for each type. There are no dates, but the cricketers have dates of around 1928, 1930 - so presumably the collection is from that period
i love the cricketers cards. i suppose the crappy mcdonalds world series contests are an equivalent. although collecting sports memorabilia is a bit, well, ordinary
i love the cricketers cards. i suppose the crappy mcdonalds world series contests are an equivalent. although collecting sports memorabilia is a bit, well, ordinaryalthough i did see a wonderful flip book, once - 
they were selling them in the brunswick st bookstore - frame by frame dennis lillee bowling action on one side, thommo on the other. i regret not buying it. soo very good!! still available!
i know some collectors - nick of the tinned tomatoes as seen on abc's the collectors, for example.
it started when my sister dared him - "i bet you can't collect
enough different tomato tins to cover the length of that window pelmut. 200+ tins later ... and nicko now knows far too much about the processes involved and the styling of tomato tins (peasant sheilas in low cut tops, volcanoes, etc).
they were selling them in the brunswick st bookstore - frame by frame dennis lillee bowling action on one side, thommo on the other. i regret not buying it. soo very good!! still available!
i know some collectors - nick of the tinned tomatoes as seen on abc's the collectors, for example.it started when my sister dared him - "i bet you can't collect
enough different tomato tins to cover the length of that window pelmut. 200+ tins later ... and nicko now knows far too much about the processes involved and the styling of tomato tins (peasant sheilas in low cut tops, volcanoes, etc).he still gets recognised by people for appearing on telly and in newspapers - and never tires of telling me about it.
as for me,this blog is the closest i come to collecting, i think.
there is a shop in melbourne, called wunderkammer (i read about it in an article called australia's strangest shops) that harks back to old time collections of species of bugs and taxidermied beasts, maps, prints and that wonderful universal and somewhat euphamistic collective noun, ephemera
there is a shop in melbourne, called wunderkammer (i read about it in an article called australia's strangest shops) that harks back to old time collections of species of bugs and taxidermied beasts, maps, prints and that wonderful universal and somewhat euphamistic collective noun, ephemera
many of today's natural history museums owe their collections to the eccentric tastes and deep pockets of
amateur collectors.
amateur collectors.some of the very deepest pockets belonged to walter rothschild, although even they weren't deep enough to keep up with his collecting mania. his zoological extravagances sent him bankrupt.
the family later donated his collection to posterity, and it's now become the tring natural history museum.
here is lord lionel walter rothschild in his zebra-drawn carriage
here is lord lionel walter rothschild in his zebra-drawn carriage
zebras have the dubious honour of being favourites of rothschild, he collected specimens of each species of zebra
in the same gallery is an example of the similarly striped but now extinct quagga
it's not hard to see why zebras are so popular with their kooky stripes - such stylish, graphic, and pony-like as they are.
i saw a doco on john kelly once, and he was trying to find a zebra he could study for his paintings - he managed to find a whole stuffed, but slightly mangy, zebra still "living" in someone's suburban garage. he was charged a fee for using it, and then it was trolleyed back into the garage. imagine growing up with your very own zebra! could only be outdone by a giraffe really - and that would be harder to keep a secret.
peter greenaway's zed & 2 noughts, replete with rotting zebras, with the awe-inspiring melancholic, obsessive rhythms of michael nyman
continuing the zebra theme (sort of) among rothschild's huge quantities of birds, are these tagged zebra finches
in the same gallery is an example of the similarly striped but now extinct quagga
it's not hard to see why zebras are so popular with their kooky stripes - such stylish, graphic, and pony-like as they are.
i saw a doco on john kelly once, and he was trying to find a zebra he could study for his paintings - he managed to find a whole stuffed, but slightly mangy, zebra still "living" in someone's suburban garage. he was charged a fee for using it, and then it was trolleyed back into the garage. imagine growing up with your very own zebra! could only be outdone by a giraffe really - and that would be harder to keep a secret.
peter greenaway's zed & 2 noughts, replete with rotting zebras, with the awe-inspiring melancholic, obsessive rhythms of michael nyman
continuing the zebra theme (sort of) among rothschild's huge quantities of birds, are these tagged zebra finches
similarly tagged,
re-contextualised budgies
The nature of art
The nature of art
Felicity Fenner, Art & Australia Vol 44 No 3 Autumn 2007
For Sydney's Object Gallery in 2006, Laurence created a floating, spiral-shaped shelf on which, arranged by species and wearing their museum tags, an array of native Australian birds were laid. Birdsong (made in collaboration with Ross Gibson) was a poignant and timely gesture, one that alluded not only to threatened species, but to the disastrous impact of humankind's ultimately futile attempts to organise and control nature.
For Sydney's Object Gallery in 2006, Laurence created a floating, spiral-shaped shelf on which, arranged by species and wearing their museum tags, an array of native Australian birds were laid. Birdsong (made in collaboration with Ross Gibson) was a poignant and timely gesture, one that alluded not only to threatened species, but to the disastrous impact of humankind's ultimately futile attempts to organise and control nature.
i love the way collection and science and "ownership" collide in art,
damien hirst, reinterpreting rothschild?'theology, philosophy, medicine, justice' featuring bull-sharks in formaldehyde
i don't know if this is the same piece (has hirst made multiple formaldehyde sharks? wikipedia says yes!) but it may also be known as The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living which is a great title - 
and really encapsulates the whole obsessive nature of these kinds of collections, where one thing or type of object is purchased repeatedly, catalogued, categorised, stuffed and shelved. and one is never enough, sometimes you need "spares", or variations on a theme.
and really encapsulates the whole obsessive nature of these kinds of collections, where one thing or type of object is purchased repeatedly, catalogued, categorised, stuffed and shelved. and one is never enough, sometimes you need "spares", or variations on a theme.it's a marvellous expression of anxiety.
i like that hirst's piece self-reflexively needed to be replaced because the dead shark -despite being suspended in formaldehyde - began to decay.
wikipedia quotes hirst on the vexing question of whether the replacement shark meant that the result could still be considered the same artwork. He observed:
It's a big dilemma. Artists and conservators have different opinions about what's important: the original artwork or the original intention. I come from a conceptual art background, so I think it should be the intention. It's the same piece. But the jury will be out for a long time to come.[7]
It's a big dilemma. Artists and conservators have different opinions about what's important: the original artwork or the original intention. I come from a conceptual art background, so I think it should be the intention. It's the same piece. But the jury will be out for a long time to come.[7]
i like that hirst's work raises questions on the validity of hirst's work
and i suppose by raising that philosophical question gives itself more "art" weight
and i suppose by raising that philosophical question gives itself more "art" weightwhile cyber-travelling i found a rather interesting site called the curated object
The Curated Object is a non-profit media project interested in the exhibition and display of decorative arts, design and objects and those who find our engagement with them compelling.
and i suppose that's the other salient thing about collections - they're not just a random assemblage of junk, there is a curator involved
some higlights for me from this website 
Aodh O’Donnell's "armadillo chair" cunningly made of cladding samples. “I wanted to use the shingle effect of the chip to achieve texture,” he says. “You usually only see the product on a flat surface and I wanted to draw attention to it in a different way.” His “celebration” of the chip struck me as important in one other aspect: he used something that most people would toss into the trash once they’ve finished with it.
a mass of trophies
Aodh O’Donnell's "armadillo chair" cunningly made of cladding samples. “I wanted to use the shingle effect of the chip to achieve texture,” he says. “You usually only see the product on a flat surface and I wanted to draw attention to it in a different way.” His “celebration” of the chip struck me as important in one other aspect: he used something that most people would toss into the trash once they’ve finished with it.
a mass of trophies
Aleksandra Mir: Triumph
May 14-Jul. 26, 2009
Aleksandra Mir was born in Poland, grew up in Sweden, moved to New York,
and has resided in Palermo for several years. And it is in Palermo, or more precisely, in a Sicilian daily newspaper, where her project Triumph had its start'in the form of a want ad run by the artist herself. She was interested in the trophy, an object whose history reaches back to our distant cultural past and which today, awarded chiefly at sporting events, is among the everyday items of our society. Within just a few months, more than 2500 trophies were collected, cleaned, and archived. Although the trophies are contemporary mass-produced articles, each one is individualized by means of an engraving and tells a personal story that references a specific event. Triumph, Aleksandra Mir's first solo exhibition in Germany, presents this collection, and has thus become an archive of popular culture and part of contemporary history.
May 14-Jul. 26, 2009
Aleksandra Mir was born in Poland, grew up in Sweden, moved to New York,
and has resided in Palermo for several years. And it is in Palermo, or more precisely, in a Sicilian daily newspaper, where her project Triumph had its start'in the form of a want ad run by the artist herself. She was interested in the trophy, an object whose history reaches back to our distant cultural past and which today, awarded chiefly at sporting events, is among the everyday items of our society. Within just a few months, more than 2500 trophies were collected, cleaned, and archived. Although the trophies are contemporary mass-produced articles, each one is individualized by means of an engraving and tells a personal story that references a specific event. Triumph, Aleksandra Mir's first solo exhibition in Germany, presents this collection, and has thus become an archive of popular culture and part of contemporary history.
Oh my Deer by Turniture, Furniture as Trophy May 27-Nov. 1, 2009The exhibition “Furniture as Trophy” centers on the phenomenon of animal materials in furniture design, with a range of objects spanning from the Middle Ages to the present day.
Furniture made of antlers or horn is juxtaposed to animal-skin-covered classics of modern interior design
is a nice segue, really to edward gorey'ssalacious "the curious sofa" (published under the nom de plume "ogdred weary")
it's best to read it yourself, but if you don't have the option you can let a stranger read it to you on youtube:it sits well in this category if only because it claims to be pornographic.
and collections over the years always drifted into "behind closed doors" territory
The coyly named "Show and Tell" article appeared in the Australian, spilling the beans on some of the secret cabinets of European museums where,
anything deemed scandalous was safeguarded under lock and key and access was granted only to a lucky few.
DURING the 19th century, tourists in the grand museums of Europe often had their own private agenda. What they really wanted to see were those wicked cabinets. The first and most famous of these was the Gabinetto Segreto in Naples, where the raunchy artworks of the ancient Romans, unearthed from the nearby cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were kept
The British Museum apparently had a sequestered collection known as Cupboard 55
Gentlemen on the "Grand Tour" would often purchase erotic curios and etchings and set up their very own cabinets to be enjoyed in private, like naughty pocket watches and greek urns
anything deemed scandalous was safeguarded under lock and key and access was granted only to a lucky few.
DURING the 19th century, tourists in the grand museums of Europe often had their own private agenda. What they really wanted to see were those wicked cabinets. The first and most famous of these was the Gabinetto Segreto in Naples, where the raunchy artworks of the ancient Romans, unearthed from the nearby cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were kept
The British Museum apparently had a sequestered collection known as Cupboard 55
Gentlemen on the "Grand Tour" would often purchase erotic curios and etchings and set up their very own cabinets to be enjoyed in private, like naughty pocket watches and greek urns
i like collections that are about inspiration, so i suppose repetition isn't that important to me
i prefer the random & the contextual, i like making my own associations between things or making up their histories
beachcombing rather than cataloguing (which is why i'd rather live by the sea and drift than work as a librarian in a tall building)
some beautiful beachcoming images - aah that's better!
12 july: watching the sunday arts programme i saw a review of "summer of us" an exhibition of photographs by narelle autio. autio has two young sons and her photographic work has been circumscribed. but this year she realised that walks on the beach with her boys had produced bucketsful of objects to be captured on film. working with a large format camera and stripped of context, the objects are suspended
i wanted to add these images and first looked in trash talk - whoops wrong blog entry
12 july: watching the sunday arts programme i saw a review of "summer of us" an exhibition of photographs by narelle autio. autio has two young sons and her photographic work has been circumscribed. but this year she realised that walks on the beach with her boys had produced bucketsful of objects to be captured on film. working with a large format camera and stripped of context, the objects are suspendedi wanted to add these images and first looked in trash talk - whoops wrong blog entry
grey wings, 2009
jellyfish, 2009looking like a papal condom
soccerball, 2009
sardine tin, 2009in a crazy loop back to fiona hall, botanical shapes and all
water bottles come into their own as they are assembled into a rather pretty chandelier, 
