Unpacking My Library; The Traits of the Collector ExposedTe Tuhi Centre for the ArtsManukau CityFebruary 13 – April 11Most of us appear to collect things whether it be fine art, pig figurines or just backyard junk. The sorts of things we assemble as
Unpacking My Library; The Traits of the Collector Exposed
Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts
Manukau City
February 13 – April 11
Most of us appear to collect things whether it be fine art, pig figurines or just backyard junk. The sorts of things we assemble as we indulge in our personal obsessions can often define something about us.
This month at Te Tuhi, in the exhibition Unpacking My Library those curious private fixations are being exposed with art work from Dan Arps, Xin Cheng, Bill Culbert, The Estate of L. Budd, Peter Madden, Daniel Malone, Elizabeth McAlpine, Neil Pardington and Ann Shelton.
The title of the exhibition Unpacking My Library comes from twentieth century cultural theorist Walter Benjamin’s essay of the same title. In this text Benjamin reflects on the peculiar traits of the collector. Like Benjamin, Curator Stephen Cleland says, ‘the exhibitions interest is the process of collecting rather than simply the content of a collection. The thought processes of the collector are exposed, revealing to the public the often subjective methods of collating and organising objects’.
The exhibition fills every inch of the gallery space and represents a mix of emerging, midcareer and senior artists. The works included actively explore collecting as a daily practice. In her ambitious ongoing project Found Time: Big Ben, London based artist Elizabeth McAlpine attempts to represent every minute in a twelve hour period (720 minutes total) through existing postcards of Big Ben. The work is exhibited in hourly grids with gaps for the missing minutes. ‘What becomes important in this work is the daily practice of itemising and organising the postcards, constantly keeping a look out for new acquisitions to her collection’ explains Cleland.
The exhibition also presents artists who reflect on and appropriate pre-existing systems of collecting. N Works that analyze pre-existing collections include Ann Shelton's studies of the Fredrick Butler Archive, Neil Pardington's analysis of public art gallery collections and The Estate of L. Budd as a self-reflective archive, which appropriates the language and the rhetoric of institutional models. For the first time the entire contents of The Estate of L. Budd will be housed in a single gallery which will become a storeroom for a collection still approaching completion.
