My inspiration comes from collections ranging from those of museums which cross cultural, historical and natural science boundaries, to those of the individual, whether the discerning Victorian lepidopterist, the eccentric 'collectaholic' of memorabilia, or merely the accumulated bricolage of everyday life. We all have a primal urge to collect.
Historically a 'Cabinet of Curiosity' contained a collection of objects which refused to fit into any recognised system of taxonomy. It was a display of the wealth and education of the collector, found within the home and constantly rearranged to inspire awe and wonder in not just the object, but in the places of its origin, exotic foreign lands, and the tales of adventure that surrounded its discovery. I am fascinated in how through the retelling of stories they evolve and are moulded to fit the contemporary. How we see these objects today through our individual experience and position in time and place.
Today, with increased mobility, technology and globalisation, the world has shrunk and we are able to place objects within a familiar context; their power to seduce and amaze is diminished, yet we still seek out the curious and unfamiliar whether to display in our homes, or within online Pinterest galleries.
In curating my own collection, the modest, mundane, imperfect or impermanent is celebrated. The notions of value and preservation are accentuated by using traditional techniques such as the Japanese craft of Kintsugi, the Egyptian process of mummification or the Victorian art of taxidermy. Connections between times, materials and culture are merged to provoke a sense of unexpected fascination and create a story.
Meticulous cataloguing systems, codes and phonetic symbols are utilised which position objects according to a multiplicity of characteristics, new sub-classes are created, connections overlap and curious juxtapositions occur. I seek to balance the familiar with the unexplained, the real with the imagined, to create something simultaneously small and intimate whilst also striking and impressive, something both beautiful and rough, something serious yet absurd.
