found via dezeen
as much as i love collecting, i like storing them away so that i can come back to them. pull them out of a old cigar box or a drawer and go through them. the places that we store things and how we save our most beloved possessions interests me. the bell jar, the drawer, the vitrine. these separate the objects from the ordinary, the utilitarian and elevate them.
i like the work of Christian Boltanski and i was lucky enough to have seen his work in person at archive fever. this piece, Vitrine of Reference, 1971 is a great example of how ordinary objects change- their importance, use, and aesthetic qualities- in the context of how we keep them. theres a detachment and melancholy in their new beauty as objects in a collection. i keep my stones in glass jars; picture in boxes and albums; keys, bugs, hair and sea glass in drawers. i like finding these things and finding ways to store them...what do you collect? how do you keep them?
Those drawers remind me of library ticket storage from back in the day. Wonderful article and thanks for the links to Boltanski, it will be cool to revisit his work. Have you seen Beuy's vitrines and cabinets?
ReplyDeleteI have various collections of random things, shells and stones in French Mason Jars, books in piles everywhere, we need some shelves! I was actually thinking about how to store the objects that have decided they want to become collections, quite a number of plastic toys and tiny wooden houses on windowsills etc. Hmmm, must figure something out. Thanks for the inspiration.