Collective Storytelling
Hashtag Gallery - 801 Dundas Street West, Toronto
February 18th-19th, 2013
Opening Reception February 18th, 2013
My collection of matchbooks and matchboxes is being curated as part of the upcoming show, Collective Storytelling, which explores the relationship between collector and object.
"Objects possess the ability tell a myriad of unique stories, and our ability to arrive at these stories relies on our built knowledge and personal experience. Objects are witnesses to the past: they may act as historical and cultural indicators, and they operate as emblematic of our own experiences through semiotic association. However, the collected object speaks most audibly about its collector – it is symptomatic of many possible human emotions: memory and nostalgia, love, loss, desire, aesthetic appeal, and almost always, some degree of longing.
So the questions that I want to pose are: what can a collection tell about its collector in their absence? How much can we deduce from the objects alone, and how do these ideas become shifted or enriched when the collector’s intent is factored in? How is meaning created within the triadic relationship between the collector, the collected, and the viewer?
The deeply personal connection that we share with material culture is inextricably linked with our contemporary sociocultural condition. The phenomenon of collecting is a direct product of late-capitalism, and collecting is indulging in excess: it has no necessity or practical purpose, but it provides us with some sort of personal fulfillment. Thus, an exploration of collecting is in turn an investigation of social behavior and value systems."
-Erika Balint, curator
Collections from:
Krystina Plante, Deidra Klieb, Jaime Rosteing, Ahmed El-Hindy, Kimberley Wilson, Jen Weddell
"Objects possess the ability tell a myriad of unique stories, and our ability to arrive at these stories relies on our built knowledge and personal experience. Objects are witnesses to the past: they may act as historical and cultural indicators, and they operate as emblematic of our own experiences through semiotic association. However, the collected object speaks most audibly about its collector – it is symptomatic of many possible human emotions: memory and nostalgia, love, loss, desire, aesthetic appeal, and almost always, some degree of longing.
So the questions that I want to pose are: what can a collection tell about its collector in their absence? How much can we deduce from the objects alone, and how do these ideas become shifted or enriched when the collector’s intent is factored in? How is meaning created within the triadic relationship between the collector, the collected, and the viewer?
The deeply personal connection that we share with material culture is inextricably linked with our contemporary sociocultural condition. The phenomenon of collecting is a direct product of late-capitalism, and collecting is indulging in excess: it has no necessity or practical purpose, but it provides us with some sort of personal fulfillment. Thus, an exploration of collecting is in turn an investigation of social behavior and value systems."
-Erika Balint, curator
Collections from:
Krystina Plante, Deidra Klieb, Jaime Rosteing, Ahmed El-Hindy, Kimberley Wilson, Jen Weddell
